Ryde and Vickers fast on Thruxton Friday

Words and images courtesy OMG Grilla

OMG GRILLA Yamaha’s Kyle Ryde and Ryan Vickers got their Thruxton weekend underway today, with Ryde finished third and Vickers in 15th.

After the steps made at Brands Hatch on Sunday last time out, Ryde wasted no time in getting to work on improving his R1 package at the fast Hampshire venue. Venturing out on his unfamiliar SC1 front tyre, the Nottinghamshire rider focussed on completing laps, whilst making minor tweaks to the set-up as the opening session went on, ultimately concluding the opening 50-minute run in third.

With a further plan in place for the second session, the number 77 rider continued his work forwards, as he chases his maiden Thruxton podium in the BSB class. A run at the end of the session saw him post a 1:15.464, concluding the day running third fastest.

Ryde said: “It’s been a better Friday than last time for sure! We started on the SC1 front, the same as Brands Hatch on Sunday and it’s been a good day. We made a plan and stuck to it, we had a few hiccups along the way but stuck to what we set out to do what we needed to. We have a few areas to improve going into tomorrow, hopefully, we can qualify well and have a good race.”

Whilst 15th on paper isn’t ideal for Ryan Vickers, it was a strong opening day for the Brands Hatch victor, who worked tirelessly on his race pace across the two practice sessions. Sitting comfortably at the top of the timesheets during Practice 1, Vickers opted to put in the softer SC0 tyre at the end of the opening session and concluded the running 0.2 seconds clear of the pack with a fastest lap of 1:16.037.

For the second session, the Thetford-based rider continued to focus on Saturday and Sunday’s races. Another strong race run for Number 7 proved promising, sitting at the head of the Practice 2 timesheets. However, opting to carry out his qualifying run in the opening session, Vickers’ Practice 1 time left him just shy of the top 14 cut-off, meaning Qualifying 1 awaits the 25-year-old.

Vickers said: “We were 15th in the second session but that doesn’t really tell the story because it’s a lot better than that. We opted to go for the SC0 run in the first session and then worked on improving the bike even more in the second. I think the extra work we’ve put in today for the races will pay off because we’re the only riders to do race runs on both tyres. We made a strong step between FP1 and FP2, and overall, I’m really happy. Grid position isn’t overly important at Thruxton because you need to be patient and save the tyre, but we’ll be smart with the one tyre we get in Qualifying and have a good race on Sunday.”Action resumes on Saturday at 13:10 for Practice 3, before Qualifying gets underway at 13:30. The weekend’s opening 20-lap race kicks off at 16:30.