After the opening race of the British Superbike (BSB) Showdown, Kyle Ryde leads the Championship standings.

Kyle Ryde takes control of the British Superbike Championship after Race One at Oulton Park. The OMG GRILLA Yamaha Racing rider claimed his first-ever Superbike win at Oulton Park in the process of claiming the Championship lead.

After starting from pole Ryde slipped back down the order into third place after Josh Brookes and Glenn Irwin passed him. However, despite being in third Ryde remained calm and aimed to save his tyre for the end of the race.

"The plan was to be on pole position and do what I did at Cadwell Park really. Not pull a gap but control the race at the front and make it difficult for the guys behind," Ryde said after his race win.

"But Josh (Brookes) was really strong on the first three or four laps especially in sector one, even when I used a lot of tyre to pass him he passed me back.

"I was clever in how I sat behind him and saved my tyre but then it brought Glenn (Irwin) into the picture. When Glenn (Irwin) passed me I thought I was in trouble because when Glenn gets in his mood at the front he is very hard to pass and very late on the brakes. The only thing I did was save the tyre the best I could so I had a great shot at the end to try and win the race."

"The little hiccup midrace was because the plastic case on my dash was rattling until it fell off!" - Kyle Ryde

In the middle of the race, Ryde dropped back off of the back of Irwin and Brookes with what seemed to be an issue. It was not until after the race that Ryde revealed that it was in fact part of his dashboard that fell off.

However, despite this issue Ryde still set a blistering pace to get back to the front guys and take victory.

Ryde continued by saying: "The little hiccup midrace was because the plastic case on my dash was rattling until it fell off and I wanted to chuck it off the track safely so I did not get told off or penalised. So, I cost myself a second or two, I was lucky really because it gave me a gap back to the guys at the front so I ended up setting the fastest lap so I will start from pole tomorrow. I had just enough time to pass them both and win the race.

"After the issue I had I was going to accept that third was good enough and anything else was a bonus. So to win my first race at Oulton, I wouldn't call it an easy race there was a lot going on, but it was a good race."