Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari had a dramatic start to his MCE British Superbike campaign with his new team at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. He stalled his bike on the starting grid in race one and narrowly avoided being hit by the other riders coming through, in what could have been a serious accident.

Kiyo started on the front row in the opening race but his bad start meant he had slipped to the back of the grid and had to work his way through the riders to get to the leading back. But the former triple champ clawed back twelve places and ended his debut race on the BMW in sixteenth.

But his best lap time in race one secured him a spot on row two for the second BSB race. This time the session  went without any major incidences and Kiyo battled with the front-runners from flag to flag, securing fourth place – and matching the team’s best BSB result so far.

“I have a very good feeling now, because we’ve had really promising results in the wet and dry and I’ve been in the top ten for every session. The second race today was really good, I was catching the lead riders,” said Kiyo.

“With a few more laps, I think I’d have had them. In practice we managed over 40 laps on one race tyre, so we have great life. In the first race, I have to say, sorry to all the other riders. I stalled the engine on the line, and I was very lucky not to get hit - it hasn’t happened before, but race two was much better.”