Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari hopes that he has silenced any critics and doubters that may have thought that the win at Knockhill was a fluke, after he bagged his second MCE British Superbike race victory of the year at Brands Hatch on Sunday.
Kiyo took the fight to the current championship leader; Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne and denied him a much-desired win at his home circuit in hot and humid conditions.The Japanese rider came through a challenging weekend which saw him only qualifying sixth, to blitz his way to the finish line in a thrilling opening race.
In the final outing of the day the Japanese rider took the lead early on, but dropped back positions before retiring after his bike misfired. Feeling that the race had suffered enough incidents and re-starts already, he elected to pull to the side of the track and play it safe.
The racer is now firmly in Showdown contention, and currently resides fourth in the overall championship standings, with a grand total of 13 podium credits. Kiyo is feeling confident after finding the right set-up that worked for him, and is looking ahead to Thruxton.
“I’m so happy to have another win so soon. I did worry that people might say ‘Kiyo was lucky at Knockhill, but that’s all’ so to win again was a big relief. We had problems this weekend getting the setup right because the chassis is really good, but the weather conditions kept changing,” said Kiyonari.
“But overnight the mechanics got it working so well and I was fastest in warm up. I knew I could ride with Shakey, Ellison, Walker – everyone. I relaxed a bit. The race was a bit stop start with the safety car, but I had a great battle with Shakey and I was lucky enough to win.
"I hoped to do the same in race two, but Shakey told me not to be so greedy. Race two was just all over the place with different settings, weather changing and having to guess how it would happen. I predicted there would be more rain so I had a wet setup - but it didn’t quite get that wet. Next time I’ll know better. I’m still learning – I know I’m quite old, but I don’t know everything yet.”
