The British Superbike Championship (BSB) celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and the 2026 series got underway at Oulton Park over the Bank Holiday weekend, and it was Kyle Ryde and Ducati who dominated, the reigning champion winning all three races at the Cheshire venue.
Early warning shot fired by Ryde
After four years on Yamaha, Ryde and the Nitrous Competitions Racing team have switched to the all-new Ducati V4R Panigale for 2026 with the Nottinghamshire rider bidding to become the first rider to win back-to-back titles for different manufacturers and also the first to win three championships in succession.
Early indications are positive, to say the least, and after looking strong in testing, initially on the road-going version of the bike, Ryde took that form and pace into the first round where he looked in complete control.
In each race, Ryde sat at the front of the leading pack before putting his head down in the final third. On each occasion, he was able to break the tow with the first race in particular seeing him pulverise the opposition with a victory of more than five seconds. There was a time when circuits like Oulton could be a bogey for Ryde but not anymore.
When any rider wins three races at the first round, it’s an ominous sign for the opposition especially when it’s not unreasonable to suggest the combination of Ryde and the Ducati will keep getting stronger.
The next round is at Donington Park where Ryde is usually the man to beat so it bodes well although, of course, he’ll be mindful of the fact that Bradley Ray went on a winning spree at the beginning of last season before the wheels began to fall off.
Haslam continues to show fight
If Ryde was to sweep everything before him, the same could be said for Ducati who were head and shoulders above the rest of the manufacturers with the Italian giant filling four of the top five places in the championship table after the opening round.
The closest challenger to Ryde was perennial title contender Leon Haslam on the Moto Rapido Ducati, the 42-year old finishing second to Ryde on each occasion. Always quick at Oulton, Haslam falls into the veteran category now, but he’s still got plenty of fight in him and is as determined as ever to win another BSB title.
A few eyebrows were raised when he joined the Moto Rapido team at the beginning of 2025, but the combination worked well last year and with a year’s experience under their belt, there’ll be expecting to be even closer to the top spot this time around.
Like all Ducati riders, Haslam only got to sit on the bike a couple of weeks before the first round so he’ll be delighted to have come away with a hat-trick of second place finishes. But he’ll also have been disappointed to see Ryde disappear up the road so closing the gap, and finishing ahead of him, will be his aim at round two.
Ray takes fight to Ducati
The only rider to threaten the Ducati stranglehold of the leaderboard places was Bradley Ray on the McAMS Yamaha, the 2022 Champion finishing third in each race behind Ryde and Haslam.
Ray was able to stay with the Ducatis in each race but didn’t have the pace to either pull away himself or go with Ryde when he made the break. Able to lap quicker on his own during practice and qualifying, the Kent rider found his lines compromised during the race and third was all he could do on each occasion.
What Ryde did at Oulton was exactly what Ray did at the start of 2025, the 28-year old going on to win nine of the first 11 races only to see his title challenge fall away in the second half of the season. For that reason, he knows you can’t win the title at the first round so won’t be too concerned just yet about Ryde’s dominant performances, but he’ll also be hopeful of closing the deficit at Donington Park next time out.
Redding and Stacey in the mix
As well as Ryde and Haslam, two other riders taking full advantage of the early superiority of the Ducati were Scott Redding and Storm Stacey, Redding on the Hager PBM machine and Stacey riding for Bathams AJN Racing.
With his Grand Prix credentials, 2019 Champion Redding is expected to challenge for the title throughout the season, especially as he finished last year as the rider in form, and with very limited testing, he’ll have been pleased to have come away with a pair of fourths and a fifth from the three races.
He wasn’t far away on either occasion and apart from Ryde, there was little to choose between the rest of the leading pack. Like Haslam and Ray, he won’t want Ryde to build up too much of a head of steam and will be looking to take full advantage of the next round being at Donington.
Redding still feels more at home at the bigger circuits, rather than the tight and twisty ones, so expect to see him closer to the top spot at round two.
Stacey was, arguably, as impressive as Ryde as his team have opted to use a tuned road-going Ducati, primarily due to costs. The full race bike being used by Ryde, Haslam and co is said to cost a cool £200,000 but Stacey, who loves the undulating Oulton Park circuit, more than proved how good the road bike is.
He struggled at Donington though in the test last month and the challenge for him and the team is to run consistently at the front.
Solid debut for bimota
Oulton Park marked the first official appearance of the bimota in the BSB series, the two machines being run by the AJN Steelstock team the only ones in use outside of the World Superbike Championship.
Alex Lowes and Axel Bassani are in the midst of their second WSB campaign after a strong debut last year, and Oulton saw impressive performances from the Italian machines – built in Italy but with a Kawasaki ZX-10RR engine – in the hands of Max Cook and Joe Talbot.
Cook is embarking on his fourth season in BSB and eighth overall last year, is expected to score considerably more podiums than the one he picked up last year. Although he’s still only 23, Cook now has more than 100 BSB races under his belt so now’s the time to kick on.
His one lap pace at Oulton was superb and he led on occasions in the races but made too many mistakes and faded each time, a brace of sixths the best he had to show for his efforts. The bike clearly looks up to the task in hand though, so Cook has plenty to build on at round two.
Team-mate Talbot, in his rookie BSB season, also showed glimpses of his potential and two top ten finishes was a more than creditable return. It’s very much a learning season for the 22-year old so with Cook expected to be running in the leading pack, more of the same will be expected of Talbot at round two, progress at each meeting the aim.
Tough weekend for Honda
The one manufacturer to struggle at Oulton Park was Honda and just like their World Superbike Championship campaign has started slowly, so too has their BSB effort.
The Australian pairing of Jason O’Halloran and Josh Brookes both found themselves at the wrong end of the top 15, scoring just seven points each across the three races whilst Brookes’ DAO Racing team-mate Lee Jackson only fared slightly better as he claimed just one top ten finish.
The one Honda rider to come out of Oulton with any real credit was the returning Ryan Vickers, the Thetford rider back in the UK after a single season on the World stage. He clung on to the leading group as long as he could in each race ultimately ending the weekend with a seventh and a brace of eighths.
However, the overall pace was clearly down compared to the Ducati especially, but also the Yamaha-mounted riders too. The season may be only one round old, but it already leaves them with plenty of work to do.