Kyle Ryde won the second British Superbike Championship race at Knockhill with the LAMI OMG Racing Yamaha rider inheriting the lead after Race 1 winner and championship leader Glenn Irwin crashed out with three laps to go.

Ryde came home almost a second clear of Irwin’s BeerMonster Ducati team-mate Tommy Bridewell, who regained the title lead, with Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) again in third.

Pole sitter O’Halloran grabbed the holeshot only for Ryde to move ahead at turn three and he led O’Halloran across the line at the end of the opening lap ahead of Vickers on the second OMG machine, Irwin, Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW) and Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki).

Irwin relegated Vickers to fourth next time around with Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Ducati) overhauling both Brookes and Jackson but Josh Owens and Max Cook were both out, the duo crashing out in separate incidents.

By lap five, Ryde was 0.3s ahead of O’Halloran with Irwin a similar distance behind and Bridewell was slowly making a move having fought his way up to seventh.

That became sixth on lap six as he pushed Brookes down a spot, but Danny Kent was another rider to crash out.

Ryde and O’Halloran had a slight gap over Irwin who was coming under increased pressure from Vickers but aided by the fastest lap of the race, Bridewell had closed in on the leading group to make it a six-way fight.

Further back, Brookes continued to hold onto seventh ahead of Jackson, Brookes, Storm Stacey (Starline Racing Kawasaki) and Charlie Nesbitt (MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing) while Leon Haslam (ROKiT BMW Motorrad) was struggling with his shoulder injury and was back in 11^th. This became tenth though when Nesbitt crashed out.

At half race distance, the 15^th of 30 laps, just 1.5s covered the leading six riders and they’d now pulled almost four seconds clear of new seventh-placed rider Jackson.

Ryde continued to lead the way though with overtaking opportunities between any of the front six few and far between as they all lapped at a similar pace although the front two of Ryde and O’Halloran were beginning to edge away slightly.

Bridwell got by Iddon on lap 16 and slowly set about doing the same to Vickers, making a move stick on lap 20 but Ryde’s lead over O’Halloran continued to hover around the 0.3s mark with Irwin a further half second adrift. Bridewell had a second to make up on his team-mate.

O’Halloran was crawling all over Ryde’s back wheel and nosed ahead at the hairpin om lap 23 only to run wide and on the drag along the start and finish, Irwin got by them both to lead for the first time. Bridwell and Vickers were still well in contention although Iddon had now dropped back.

O’Halloran got back ahead of Ryde at the hairpin with five laps to go only to run wide and that allowed Bridewell to grab third, but drama came at the end of lap 27 when Irwin crashed out at the hairpin.

That gifted the lead to Ryde and he didn’t look back going on to win by 0.903s from Bridewell, O’Halloran and Vickers with Iddon taking a comfortable fifth.

Further back, Jackson finished in a comfortable sixth with Stacey, Tom Neave (Honda Racing), Brookes and Haslam completing the top ten.

BSB Knockhill | RACE 2 Results