Breakthrough Weekend at Donington
Ryan is back on the box!
After heavy rain Thursday and into Friday morning at Donington Park it meant that Friday’s opening Bennetts British Superbike Championship session got underway in damp but drying conditions.
Ryan waited for the perfect moment to head out in Friday morning’s session, only completing five flying laps with a best time of 1:36.020. The afternoon session was positive too, he worked hard with his side of the garage and improved his times during the 40-minute session, finishing the day’s sessions in 2nd place.
Saturday proved a frustrating day, struggling with front end issues throughout the 15-minute session of Qualifying and pushing hard but could only secure a 1:28.224 which left him in 11th.
Confident of his race pace, he made a good start, making up places, and quickly settled into the group. Holding onto 6th place at the midway stage, a late-charging Danny Kent demoted him back to 7th.
Best Lap time 1:28.338 on lap 14.
On Sunday, after making more changes overnight, Ryan instantly looked happier on his R1 and set sights on two strong results. Making a strong getaway from his 10th position grid slot, Vickers settled into the 12 Lap sprint. Battling his way through to 7th, he was unable to make a pass on Iddon and was forced to settle for the position before a track-limits time penalty pushed him back to 11th. Very frustrating.
Best Lap time 1:27.843 on lap 10.
With another change made to the bike for Race 3, Vickers made a strong getaway from 7th and immediately looked more assertive. Up for the fight, he continued his surge forward, picking off Leon Haslam, Iddon and Andrew Irwin by Lap 7. With Bridewell in his sights, he muscled his way through and began working towards Danny Kent and Kyle before the red flag halted his progress.
Best Lap time 1:27.970 on lap 6.
Ryan Vickers
Race 1: 7th | Race 2: 11th | Race 3: 3rd
Championship: 5th (265 points)
What a weekend!
A tough one for us. We started off with some issues that halted our progress.
Finally, on Sunday, we started to eliminate the problems and coming into race three I had a good enough bike to fight for the win I believe.
Starting off in P7, I had to be quite aggressive to make up places to close up with Kyle and Danny, who were already setting a good pace themselves. I pushed on, I really pushed hard and reeled them in. Kyle has been really strong this weekend and to show that we were strong in that last race was great. To bring it home in P3 was amazing.
Thanks to the team, we all tried our hardest but we didn’t drop our heads or give up we kept on pushing, kept on trying to resolve the issues and we came away with a podium. We should be proud of this, it’s a shame because we should be there every race but this means we hit the ground running for Brands Hatch and fight for the wins in every race.
Thanks to everyone for their messages and support!