Kyle Ryde learned from following Jason O’Halloran out front, and timed his last lap to perfection, with a bit of luck, to come out on t☂op in a huge, exciting seven way battle to the final corner at Thruxton.

• 2024 British Superbikes: Thruxton 🍷- Qual♓ifying Results
• 2﷽024 British Superbikes: Thruxton - Race Results (1)

The OMG Grilla rider show♎ed he had the pace to be a contender with pole position earlier in the day. The Yamaha rider had never been on the podium before at the Hampshire track, so was keen to show what he could do from further up the grid:

“I’ve always bee꧋n stronger in the last sector, on any bike, but the last couple of years I’ve not been in a place really to show it because I’ve always been slow around the other bits, so it’s n🌊ice to be able to finally figure out how to ride around Thruxton.

Taking a pole✱ position and a race win in the long race - never thought I’d do that this weekend! So yeah, I’ve already ticked many boxes before we’ve even got to Sunday”.

Ryde pointed out that his Yamaha and Jason O’Halloran were battling the wind more out front, while the group behind could slipstream through, which lead to a team1-2 as Ryan Vickers took advantage to go fಞrom second back into the pack and still manage to come back out for a rostrum visit:

“The wind has been heading straight in our face down the bac🍎k straight, which makes our bike basically into a 600 and the slipstream works massively so…Ryan came out of Church in sixth and ended up finishing second - so it’s not a normal situation on a superbike - we’ve got to get used to it because the wind is always in that direction.

I’m sure it was fun to watch on the TV, but for us it ಌwas a bit of a niꦿghtmare really!”

Ryde felt like h෴e learned a lot from his wise decision to stay🏅 behind O’Halloran, who has a superior record at Thruxton:

“Jason set a pace at the front which was saving tyre, so me being - I don’t know the word - I won’t say ‘grown up’ but smart - he’s won many more races than anyone, probably double the amount - so I was clever enough to follow him, learned a lot - because obviously my best finish around here I think has been sixth, so to go from that to a win - I must have done🌟 something right!”

With seven riders in contention over the longer tw🌠enty lap distance the #77 is expecting the shorter twelve la🎃p sprint on Sunday to be chaotic, Ryde will start 13th on the fairly reversed grid:

“Everybody’s got pace so that sprint race is going to be an absolute maniac festival!”