Seventh Heaven for OMG GRILLA at Cadwell 

Words and images courtesy OMG GRILLA

OMG GRILLA Yamaha extended their mighty winning streak to the lucky number Seven today, thanks to a sublime ride from Kyle Ryde. Sadly, after an unfortunate crash in Qualifying, team-mate Ryan Vickers was forced to retire on the second lap due to a technical problem.

OMG GRILLA Yamaha continued their winning ways on Sunday as Kyle Ryde stormed to an impressive victory in the Bank Holiday weekend’s opening race.

After putting a lap together in Saturday’s sodden practice, Ryde ventured out for Qualifying, which thanks to a short downpour was run in the usual 15-minute format, rather than the one-lap Superpole shootout.

Setting a strong early pace, the Nottinghamshire rider sat at the top of the timesheets, before being bumped to second as he made a stop for a tyre change. Heading back out on fresh rubber, ‘Youth’ instantly bettered his time, slingshotting himself back to the top before Jason O’Halloran pipped him for pole position, finishing second ahead of the opening race.

Making a strong getaway to the 18-lap Race, Ryde launched into the lead but was quickly demoted back to second at turn two. A good run out of Charlies set the #77 rider up for a move into Park, passing O’Halloran and taking the lead. From there, the Yamaha rider proved untouchable, managing the gap to the riders behind before upping his pace to stretch the lead to over a second. Managing the gap till the end, he crossed the line to take a third win of the season, and the team’s seventh consecutive Bennetts British Superbike Championship win.

Ryde said: “With the outcome of Qualifying, we had a good chance to claw back some points with Tommy Bridewell starting further down the order. We took some points out of his lead and managed to take the win, so it’s been a good day. We’re in a good place going into tomorrow so let’s make it count.”

After topping the official test and Saturday’s practice, it was a Sunday to forget for Ryan Vickers, who suffered an unfortunate crash in Qualifying before a technical problem ended his race early. Confident of the pace shown, Vickers is hopeful of making places up in Monday’s 12-lap Sprint Race, which he’ll start from 20th.

Vickers commented: “I crashed in Qualifying and had a technical issue after a good start. It is what it is! We know that we have the pace and we’ll get our elbows out tomorrow, get a strong Sprint Race under our belts, improve the starting position for Race 3 and fight for some strong results.”