Kyle Ryde scored a crucial victory in the second British Superbike Championship [BSB] race of the weekend at Donington Park to launch himself back into title contention after BeerMonster Ducati. team-mates Tommy Bridewell and Glenn Irwin were eliminated in a collision.

In a race that was red flagged and declared completed with three laps remaining due to rain, Ryde took full points for victory, with Leon Haslam and Christian Iddon joining him on the podium.

However, it was the clash between the Paul Bird Motorsport duo that stole the headlines, not least because Ryde and Haslam have surged back into contention, the quartet covered by just 33.5 points now.

Spots of rain meant the leading pack had bunched together at half race distance and coming into the Melbourne Hairpin, Bridewell, who’d tore his way through the pack from last on the grid, found himself squeezed and with nowhere to go, clattered into the back of Irwin.

Haslam led Lee Jackson (Cheshire Mouldings Kawasaki) and Ryan Vickers on the second OMG machine into turn one but Irwin had the best start of anyone going from 12^th on the grid to fourth and that soon became second as he overhauled both Vickers and Jackson.

The Ducati rider then took the lead at Redgate at the start of lap two, the order behind him Haslam, Jackson, Vickers, Ryde and Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) as Bridewell fought his way up to 13^th.

Irwin led Haslam by a quarter of a second with new third placed rider Ryde a further half second back, the Yamaha rider having overtaken firstly his team-mate Vickers and then Jackson, the latter at the Melbourne Hairpin. Bridewell, meanwhile, moved up into the top ten on the fifth lap.

The front three of Irwin, Haslam and Ryde began to edge away from fourth-placed Jackson but their advantage in the first half of the lap was eradicated by the time they got back to the Melbourne Loop and starting lap six, just over a second covered the front five. Bridewell was now up to eighth having overhauled Jason O’Halloran (McAMS Yamaha) and Jack Kennedy (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha).

By lap nine, Bridewell was up to fifth having also dispensed of Jackson, Iddon and Josh Brookes (FHO Racing BMW), and with the gap to leader Irwin just 1.6s, he took the lead at Goddards at the end of the lap!

With spots of rain beginning to fall, however, the leading pack bunched back together and there was just 1.6s covering the leading seven riders, Bridewell now leading from Irwin, Vickers, Haslam, Iddon, Ryde and Jackson. O’Halloran was also closing in and there were soon eight riders disputing the lead.

Irwin re-took the lead at McLeans on lap 11 and a lap later, Ryde had regrouped and fought his way back up to second, moving by Bridewell on the way into Coppice. However, drama followed shortly afterwards when Bridewell ran into the back of Irwin at the Melbourne Hairpin with both riders crashing out, Irwin remonstrating with his team-mate as he lay in the gravel trap.

That put Ryde and Haslam into first and second place with the duo set to eat substantially into the Ducati rider’s championship lead with Jackson also set to benefit and it was Ryde who seized the initiative. Haslam reeled him back in as more spots of rain began to fall and that led to the race being red flagged on lap 17, Ryde getting the win from Haslam, Iddon and Jackson.

O’Halloran finished fifth ahead of Vickers with Charlie Nesbitt (MasterMac Honda by Hawk Racing) coming through for seventh from Brookes, Max Cook on the second Kawasaki and Peter Hickman (FHO Racing BMW).