Kyle Ryde secures first win of the season at Donington Park

Kyle Ryde leads Lee Jackson into a corner at Donington Park. Photo by Michael Hallam.

Ryde took victory in the BSB’s first sprint race of the season after a thrilling last lap duel with Aussie Jason O’Halloran, who made two attempts to pass Ryde only to be denied on both occasions.

And having passed his rival early in the race, Ryde was happy to have held out.

He said afterwards: “That’s been a long time coming and I’m so happy to be back on top of the podium.

"I just saw my opportunity - if I don’t do it now, I never will, so I had a go and, to be honest, I come round and there was 12 laps to go and I thought I’ve gone way too early here.

"I had half a second on the last lap and Jason managed to bridge the gap but then he ran wide at the old hairpin.

“I’ve sometimes doubted myself after a difficult year last year but that really was special. On the slowdown lap, I realised that this was the best feeling of my career so far and I can’t thank the team enough for standing by me and giving me all the support possible.”

Ryde’s weekend wasn’t all glory, with a crash seeing him fail to finish Sunday’s first race and then him having to make do with a fifth place in the second.

He was looking good and running in second place in the early stages of the first race, but a heavy crash at McLean’s on lap five ended his chances.

His team managed to repair his bike for the final race of the weekend and Ryde managed to finish fifth, just over five seconds behind race winner O’Halloran.

Ryde added: “The last race was pretty difficult and I wasn’t sure if I was going to get out or not but the boys did a great job and both sides of the garage worked to get the bike back together.

“It was nice to repay them with a strong result and although the bike felt a bit different, they always do after a big crash!”

“To get a fifth was pretty good. Obviously I would have liked to have got a better result but that was my fault after crashing in the second race. Overall though, it’s been a strong weekend.”

Ryde now sits in fourth overall in the championship with 117 points.