Rollercoaster Weekend for Vickers
After successful Round One at Navarra, Ryan felt relaxed and confident for Round Two of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship with the OMG Racing Yamaha team.
The Team arrived at Oulton Park for a two-day test Ryan wanted to make up for the lack of data from 2023 he worked with the team on some fine-tuning and adjustments to get him feeling that he had a bike ready for the race weekend.
His consistent lap times, put him in the top three and he was happy with the bike.
Saturday morning, Ryan secured P3 over the FP1 and in FP2 he had a small fall at Hislop’s chicane but no damage was done and his lap time of 1:33.869 +0.247 from Tommy Bridewell, taking himself straight into Qualifying on Sunday.
He again, kept his pace and secured a front-row start in the closing moments of the session with a 1:33.659 leaving him starting alongside Irwin and Ryde for Race One later that day.
Race One 18 laps
Ryan got another great start, taking the P1 into Old Hall, with Glen and Kyle behind.
Straight away settling settled into a good rhythm and looked comfortable with the pressure building behind. On lap 3 Irwin made his move up into P1 into Hislops.
Iddon tagged on with Kent and the pace increased, Ryan dropped back, defending to P5 to Kent, and on the final lap Kent got past RV into Shell Oils, undeterred, Ryan hit back and on the last corner of the race crossed the line P5.
Ryan’s fastest lap was 1:33.986 on lap 7.
Race Two 12 lap
A tough race for Ryan, didn’t get the start he wanted and found himself falling back into the chasing pack.
A few changes had been made overnight but the bike was not as it was during the test, leaving him crossing the line p9.
Ryan’s fastest lap was 1:33.955 on lap 2.
Race Three 18 Lap
Starting P5 row two, after getting a solid start Ryan was being held up by Haslam. Once he broke free, he set about chasing down the lead trio, Irwin, Iddon and Kent.
Taking 0.2 every lap he closed the gap whilst they were riding to defend. Ryan was relentless and took P3 from Danny in the closing stages of the last lap, the team were ecstatic seeing him hold off Kent for that podium spot.
Ryan’s fastest lap was 1:33.749 on lap 5.
What a rollercoaster weekend for Ryan and the team, after the frustrations of the first two races, securing points and a podium, was a reward for the hard work.
Ryan Vickers
OMG GRILLA Yamaha Position: Race One P5 | Race Two P9 | Race Three P3 |
“We started the test in a good place and I was very happy with the bike and the setup ready for the weekend. Managing a P3 in Qualifying, even though I was struggling a bit, put me back to P5 in the race. I struggled so badly on Monday in Race Two and we didn’t know why, the bike was doing some weird things which it hadn’t done in testing which confused us as we didn’t know what was going on. We changed a few parts and we figured out what was causing it, and then my bike was handling again. In the final race of the day, I felt like it was mine and I could ride to the full potential of the bike.
Fair play to the team, they didn’t stop working all weekend, so to come away with a podium in the last race was a reward for us all.
See you at Donington Park! “