Ryde continues to dominate in BSB
Round three of the British Superbike Championship took the riders and teams north of the border to the Scottish circuit of Knockhill and whilst it rained on the first of the three days, the sun shone on the other two and saw Kyle Ryde continue to dominate with pole position and two more race victories.
Ryde prevails again
Despite battling a flu-type bug, there were no problems come race day for Ryde and his Nitrous Coin/Nitrous Competitions Racing Ducati with his brace of victories making it a total of seven from the nine races to take place so far. His march to a third successive title is showing no signs of slowing down.
Conserving his energy on the opening day when heavy rain hit the 1.2-mile venue (when most of the UK was bathing in sunshine), Ryde was faced with a busy day on Saturday with an additional practice session but it proved no barrier as he claimed pole position before romping to a 3.5s victory in the opening 30-lap race.
True, Bradley Ray’s retirement helped him, and he admitted later he wasn’t sure where he found the reserves of strength to maintain his rapid pace for the entire race distance but that’s what he did, and it ended up being another comfortable victory.
Sunday’s Sprint race followed a similar pattern, albeit with a reduced winning margin, and although his heavy cold finally caught up with him in the final race, he was still able to finish third to maintain his 100% record of finishing on the podium in all nine races.
The opening three rounds at Oulton Park, Donington Park and Knockhill have taken place at three vastly different circuits but with seven wins and two thirds from the first nine races, Ryde’s consistency is at new levels, and the chasing pack know they’re up against it in 2026.
Redding leads the chase
Despite of all his success, Ryde’s lead in the title standings over Scott Redding is only 21 points, largely due to the fact that Redding is shadowing Ryde in each and every race and the BSB points system is designed to keep the title race close.
Victory in the first race at Donington was followed by three successive third place finishes, a position the Hager PBM Ducati rider later said he was getting sick and tired of! But after third in the second race at Knockhill, the 2019 champion ended the weekend on a high with his second victory of the season.
The only rider to taste victory other than Ryde will give Redding tremendous confidence but although the latter has competed considerably more on the World stage, competing against many of the sports very best, he’s quick to acknowledge, and appreciate, that Ryde is currently to a standard that wouldn’t put him of place in that arena.
Redding had a steady start to the season at round one but is now on a run of six straight podiums with that period seeing him score 98 points to Ryde’s 100 which shows, despite Ryde’s run of victories, just how closely matched they are. Knockhill was only the conclusion of the first quarter of the season so we can expect the duo to be battling each other at every round.
Battling hard
Speaking of battling, that’s an attribute that firmly fits Bradley Ray’s performances in 2026 as although the McAMS Yamaha rider has yet to win a race, he’s proving to be a major thorn in the side of the posse of Ducati riders.
He came mightily close to taking his first win of the season at race one at Knockhill only for the bike to let him down with just five laps to go but although the Yamaha R1 is clearly an inferior bike to the Ducati Panigale, at present, he’s doing all he can to make sure they don’t have it all their own way.
Two third place finishes at round one was followed by a podium-less round two at Donington whilst he bounced back from his race one disappointment at Knockhill to claim second in each of the next two races. But whilst they were his best results of the season so far, the DNF was a severe dent to his challenge and he’s already 47 points adrift of Ryde.
Trying to bridge that gap, given the way the likes of Ryde, and Redding, are riding, will be no easy task and the harder he tries to make up for the bike deficiency, the more jeopardy it brings.
Cook falls off pace
One rider who didn’t enjoy his trip to Scotland as much was Max Cook, a DNF in race one when he crashed out at the hairpin followed by a fifth and a seventh in the remaining two races.
On the one hand, they were solid results for the AJN Steelstock bimota rider but given his performances at the first two rounds – especially Donington where he finished on the podium in all three races and was rarely out of the top three all weekend – it was a bit of a setback especially as he was a fair distance from the leaders in each race.
Of course, the bimota is new to the UK circuits and his cause wasn’t helped by Friday’s wet weather, which hindered set up and his race one crash came on just the ninth of 30 laps losing him valuable track time. With no data from previous years to call upon, it’s perhaps understandable that he wasn’t as close to the front.
The bimota has been developed on circuits used in the World Superbike Championship which are a lot more open and flowing compared to the tighter confines of the UK circuits, so a season long challenge was always going to be a tall order. The next round at Snetterton should suit both rider and bike more and the Swindon rider will be looking to bounce back.
Vickers impresses
Honda’s tough start to the year in both the World and British Superbike Championships continues but one, continued shining light has been Ryan Vickers and the Norfolk rider had his best weekend to date at Knockhill.
Far and away the best Honda performer at the first two rounds, Vickers impressed even further at Knockhill and only a spill in race two blotted his copybook. The other two races saw him take a brace of fourths, the final race of the weekend seeing him briefly occupy the final podium position as he relegated Ryde to fourth.
The reigning champion ultimately prevailed but it was a fine ride by Vickers with the only change made to the bike from previous rounds being to lower Vickers in the seat by 10-15mm. whether or not it was that alone that saw him closer to the leading pack remains to be seen but the vibration experienced at the first two rounds allowed him to show his capability.
He was again way ahead of his Honda peers, and his tally of 61 points is more than three times that of Honda Racing team-mate Jason O’Halloran whilst the DAO Racing pairing of Josh Brookes and Lee Jackson were again at the bottom end of the top ten. Vickers year in World Superbikes in 2025 has clearly served him well.
Change in tact for BMW
Two riders absent from Knockhill were the 8TEN Racing BMW pairing of Peter Hickman and Davey Todd and the team announced ahead of the meeting that they’d be withdrawing from the series for the rest of the year, a disappointment for all concerned, albeit an understandable one.
BSB rules stipulate everyone must use a Motec ECU unit, rather than the manufacturer’s kit electronics system, as well as the control tyres from sole supplier Pirelli. That combination has proven detrimental to the performance of the BMW M1000R, particularly the softer tyre being used in 2026.
It was hoped that BMW would be allowed to use a harder compound tyre this year, but those hopes were dashed at the official BSB tests with Hickman failing to score a point at the first two rounds when Todd was absent through injury.
Hickman had a good Isle of Man TT, where he could use Dunlop tyres and BMW’s own electronics, whilst the bike is also highly competitive in the Pirelli National Superstock Championship where bikes must run the manufacturers electronics. In BSB spec though, it’s almost impossible to make the BMW work.
It’s clearly disappointing to lose the official BMW team from BSB but Hickman and Todd will focus on other meetings in the second half of 2026 with Hickman having already announced he’ll be making his debut at next month’s Southern 100 on the Isle of Man as well as the Chimay road races in Belgium.