Round four of the 2023 British Superbike Championship was held at Knockhill in Scotland over the weekend with OMG Yamaha’s Kyle Ryde and BeerMonster Ducati’s Glenn Irwin taking the wins.
Ryde jumped out of the gates in race one to initially lie second to polesitter Jason O’Halloran (McCams Yamaha), engaging in a five-rider battle that included BMW’s Christian Iddon, teammate Ryan Vickers, O’Halloran, himself and Glenn Irwin.
Irwin was looking good for the win until he crashed out with three laps to go. Ryde was then the race leader with Tommy Bridewell promoted to second after he had carved his way up the order with O’Halloran in third and that was how the podium lined up at the flag.
Ryde backed up his race-one win with another victory in race two, this time from Bridewell and O’Halloran.
Irwin was in a determined mood for the final race of the weekend and, after another race-long battle with Bridewell, Vickers and O’Halloran—who would crash out if the lead on lap two—the former Honda rider took the race win to move to third in the championship standings, 11 points off series leader Bridewell. Ryde backed up his two race wins with a fourth in race three.
“It’s a shame what happened in today’s first race as I could have been coming away with a hat-trick but I’m happy with the two wins we had and, like, yesterday, I really, really enjoyed the final race. I could see Tommy in the lead and knew when it was time to up the pace as while he was strong in some areas, I felt strong all around the circuit.
He improved his braking into the hairpin all weekend, but the BeerMonster Ducati was strong out of the hairpin, and I was able to make my move along the straight and into the first corner.” CN
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