Kyle Ryde (LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha) claimed the spoils in the opening British Superbike Championship race of the final round at Brands Hatch on Saturday, taking a slender victory over Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha)

Ryde got the better of Yamaha counterpart O'Halloran by a mere +0.015s to collect the full 35 points, but with Tommy Bridewell coming home third ahead of BeerMonster Ducati team-mate Glenn Irwin, things remain finely poised at the sharp end of the standings.

With two races remaining, Bridewell leads Irwin by 10.5 points, while Ryde has brought the gap to the top down to 27 points.

Getting underway in patchy dry conditions following earlier rain, slick tyres remained the choice despite wet spots at certain points on the Kent circuit. From the off it was O’Halloran who. grabbed the hole-shot from Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW Motorrad Team) and Jack Kennedy (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha).

Bridewell quickly moved up to third with the order at the end of the opening lap O’Halloran, Haslam, Bridewell, Ryde, Kennedy and Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati), Irwin had already made up seven places from 17^th on the grid to tenth.

Bridewell took second from Haslam at Surtees next time around, the BMW rider forced slightly wide and dropping to sixth, although it didn’t last long as Ryde soon took second. Iddon was up to fourth and although Irwin was still running in tenth, he was now the fastest rider on track.

A confident-looking Ryde took the lead from O’Halloran on the exit of Westfield on lap three with Bridewell taking third from Iddon a lap later and Irwin was now with the leading group in fifth. And that became fourth on lap five when he dived up the inside of Kennedy at Surtees.

The gap between Ryde and O’Halloran was just 0.152s with Bridewell a further 1.3s back and Irwin was only half a second behind his team-mate as the race reached half distance. Haslam and Iddon had regrouped in fifth and sixth with Kennedy dropping back to seventh.

Ryde upped his lead to a quarter of a second over O’Halloran as they started lap eight with Irwin now searching for a way by Bridewell, the Ducati teamsters separated by a tenth of a second as the race entered its final third. Haslam’s title hopes took a serious knock on the ninth lap though when he crashed out.

Out front, Ryde maintained his advantage over O’Halloran whilst any overtaking effort by Irwin on Bridewell meant going offline and that’s what happened on lap 11 when he shot up the inside at Stirling’s only to run wide, ultimately sealing third place for Bridewell.

The final lap saw O’Halloran close the gap and then overtake Ryde only for the latter to immediately respond, going on to take the victory by the slender margin of 0.015s and with third place, Bridewell extended his championship lead over Irwin to 10.5pts.

Iddon took fifth and with Charlie Nesbitt (MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing) crashing out in the closing stages, Peter Hickman moved up to sixth, one place ahead of FHO Racing BMW team-mate Josh Brookes with Kennedy, Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki) and Ryan Vickers on the second OMG machine rounding out the top ten.

Brands Hatch BSB | Race 1 Results