British Superbikes, Thruxton: Vickers - “ It looked worse than what it was!”

The OMG Grilla rider Ryan Vickers arrived with a triple under his belt from Brand Hatch but refused to rest on his laurels - and credited his many laps in practice - far more than any other rider - with acclimatising him to the Hampshire track and allowing him to flourish, with a podium coming across all three, very different races:

“The temperature was up, twenty lap race - it’s always going to be a bit more difficult on the tyres but it comes into my hands - and the Yamaha hands a little bit more. We worked really hard on Friday, you know, doing full race runs, don’t know how many laps I’ve done around this circuit this weekend! I think I did nearly ten more than anyone on Friday, so that just shows the work that we put in and it’s paid off”.

• 2024 British Superbikes: Thruxton - Race Results (2)
• 2024 British Superbikes: Thruxton - Race Results (3)

In race three Vickers had started from pole but had tyre wear on his mind over the longer distance so was happy to sit back for a few laps and weigh up the opposition:

“That last race I was in the lead and just chilled out. Danny come past at the start and I sat there - fourth, fifth, really happy.

I didn’t want to lose too many more positions, that’s why I took Jackson again, got past Danny and then I just sat there in behind Kyle for a little while - I just picked my point, you know, I didn’t want to - I didn’t want to go back as far as what I did yesterday - I thought I was a little bit too risky”.

Back at the head of the race, a thoughtful Vickers timed his move back into the lead on the Yamaha, moving ahead of Billy McConnell who inherited first when Tommy Bridewell slipped back:

“I just used my head, then when I got to the front, I didn’t really want to = but I saw Billy was in the lead and his pace wasn’t coming as easy, I don’t think, so I just thought - ‘right, I’ll go in the lead’ because Billy’s really hard to pass, he’s great on the brakes, so I though maybe I’ll up the pace slightly to what I’m comfortable doing.

A safe lap was all that was needed with an 0.7 second lead, now over Danny Kent, but once again, as was the case in Spain for the duo, Vickers was going to need to save a late scare:

“I knew just a nice clean lap, smooth lap would be good enough - so we’re going into the last corner I think I’m making this a bit of a trend with Navarra, but Brands Hatch was a little bit smoother!

I didn’t want to get out-broken on the last corner, so I really did break late, probably later than I’ve gone all weekend to be honest, with the worst tyre. Come in drifting sideways and then I ran wide on the first corner and then made the left really, really tight, and yeah, there was a little moment!

Just touched the gas and it pulled the rear around a little bit - it looked worse than what it was!”