The Showdown phase of the British Superbike Championship got underway at Assen in Holland at the weekend and with just two rounds to go, reigning champion Kyle Ryde’s in the driving seat with a 31-point lead.
Ryde the man to beat?
With just two rounds and six races remaining, Ryde and his Nitrous Competitions Racing Yamaha are in the best place possible. Bang on form and with a lead of more than thirty points, he’s well on course to make it two titles in a row.
The 28-year old has strung together an impressive season, arguably more impressive than his championship-winning season last year. He’s scored points in every race, the only rider to do so, and has finished inside the top five in all but four of the 27 races to take place so far.
That’s played a huge part in him turning a 52-point deficit to Ray, after the fourth round at Knockhill, into his current 31-point advantage. If there’s any chink in his armour, it’s the wet and his four finishes outside of the top five have all come in the wet, seventh and 11th at Knockhill and sixth and eighth at Assen.
Despite of the latter, he still scored more points than Yamaha rival Bradley Ray at the Dutch venue although it has to be said, if it hadn’t been for Ray’s first race crash, his points advantage would have been almost halved. Racing’s all about if’s, buts and maybe’s though and he goes into the penultimate round with a healthy advantage.
One thing he’ll be wary of is Ray’s strength at the final two venues, Oulton Park and Brands Hatch, particular the former.
Ryde was off the podium at Oulton at the beginning of the year but took first, second and third at Brands in July so if he does lose any ground at Oulton, he’ll still more than fancy his chances of getting the job done at Brands especially as he did exactly that last year.
Ray falls of the pace
It’s hard to pinpoint the reason for Ray falling off the pace but there’s no denying he’s gone from an almost dead cert to winning the title to now scrambling to keep in contention.
Of course, the gap to Ryde of 31 points is far from insurmountable but it’s the inconsistency that suggests he’s got a major fight on his hands to take his second BSB title.
Unlike the first five rounds where he was near faultless on the Raceways Yamaha all weekend , finishing on the podium in 12 of the 14 races (which included a run of eight straight wins), the pattern now’s a good race followed by a poor/indifferent one, or vice versa and that’s a) why his advantage has become a deficit and b) why he’s struggling to eat into Ryde’s lead.
Nowhere was this seen more than at Assen when he crashed out of third in race one (true, he wasn’t the only one to be caught out by the weather conditions and his fate could have happened to any of the front runners), bounced back with third in race two but then slipped back to sixth in the final encounter.
The three race crashes have had far bigger consequence not just in the points dropped but by making it hard to re-capture his pace in the subsequent races. He needs to have a trouble-free weekend and run at the front in all three races, if only from a confidence-perspective so the Oulton meeting could be crucial.
It’s here where Ray is at his strongest and he could quite easily win all three races at the Cheshire venue and if he does that, we’ll have yet another thrilling final round. Either way he needs to score more points at the penultimate round than Ryde.
Redding continues to impress
Since joining the series at round four, initially as a substitute for Glenn Irwin at the Hager PBM Ducati team but swiftly becoming a permanent addition, Scott Redding has been a regular front runner.
Given his World Championship credentials and 2019 BSB title, that shouldn’t have come as any surprise but joining a championship mid-year and having not ridden on the majority of the circuits for six years is no easy task.
Redding has embraced the challenge with a refreshing attitude though and since his maiden outing at Knockhill in July, he’s won four races and been on the podium in another five.
To put it another way, if the series had started at the Knockhill meeting, he’d be sitting in third overall and well placed for a second title.
As it is, he sits in eighth and although the title is a non-starter due to the number of races missed, he’ll definitely have a say in the final destination of this year’s championship.
He’s only interested in victories between now and at the end of the season but that means he could be taking points off Ryde and Ray as they dispute the title.
Haslam and Skinner add to Ducati threat
Redding’s arrival has made him the most significant threat for Ducati, but Leon Haslam and Rory Skinner haven’t been a million miles away and currently occupy third and fourth overall respectively in the championship standings.
Both riders have been extremely consistent, Haslam failing to score points in just one race and Skinner two. But they’ve been unable to seriously mount a title challenge as seen by the fact they have just two wins between them, Haslam winning at the opening round at Thruxton and Skinner at his home round at Knockhill.
Skinner has more podiums, nine to five, but was disappointing at both Thruxton and Cadwell and not performing at certain tracks when compared to high class results at the likes of the Knockhill and Donington has blunted his challenge.
However, it’s both his and the Cheshire Mouldings/TAS teams first year with the Ducati Panigale whilst Haslam is in his first season at Moto Rapido and on a Ducati for the first time since 2007, factors that cannot be ignored.
There’ll both want to end the season as the leading Ducati rider and with just 12 points currently between them, it’ll go right down to the wire as to who’ll succeed.
Iddon keeps Kawasaki in the frame
With just two bikes on the grid, Kawasaki are very much the poor relations of the BSB series with the ZX-10R model the oldest of all the manufacturers. But the FS-3-run team, currently backed by AJN Steelstock, continue to churn out the results.
Skinner and Lee Jackson have been amongst those to be at the forefront in recent years but in 2025 it’s Christian Iddon who’s been carrying the torch, ably supported by young team-mate Max Cook.
Of course, Iddon is one of the most experienced riders in the field with over 300 BSB starts to his name but after several years with Ducati, he’s adapted to the Kawasaki superbly.
A front runner for most of the season, recent rounds have seen him reap the rewards and Assen saw him claim a much-deserved win. It could have been a double too had he not slipped off in the final race.
Since the fourth round Iddon has been almost ever-present in the top six, in both dry and wet conditions, so after taking no less than seven fourth place finishes, a first podium at Thruxton and then the Assen victory were the least he deserved.
He sits in fifth overall at present with Cook, also on the box at Thruxton, in ninth so both will have a significant part to play in the closing stages of the season.
Changes at Honda
A bombshell was dropped by Honda recently when it was announced that long-time team manager Havier Beltran had left not just the BSB team but the entire Honda corporation with immediate effect.
No explanation has been given as to the reasons why with only a short 31-word statement issued but either way to say it’s surprised, or even shocked, everyone would be an understatement.
Beltran’s role over the years, with both the BSB and International road racing teams, cannot be underestimated with countless success brought to both and although recent years have been more challenging, Beltran’s always steered a tight ship.
It was thought Honda UK would be taking over the World Superbike Championship team with Beltran ideally placed to manage such an undertaking and although they may still do this, Beltran’s time in the sport is, for now, over.
Having started watching motorcycle races all over the world form childhood, Phil Wain has been a freelance motorcycle journalist for almost 20 years and is features writer for a number of publications including BikeSport News, Classic Racer and Road Racing Ireland, as well as being a regular contributor to MCN and MCN Sport.
He is PR officer for a number of teams and riders at both the British Superbike Championship and International road races, including PBM Ducati, John McGuinness, KTS Racing and Jackson Racing. He is also heavily involved with the Isle of Man TT Races working with the race organisation, writing official press releases and race reports as well as providing the TV and radio broadcasting teams with statistical information.