Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari is looking like the rider to beat during this MCE British Superbike race weekend at Silverstone, after he blasted away all the other lap times sat by the rest of the field during the free practice sessions today.

King Kiyo proved he was well and truly back on championship winning form after a super quick 2'06.286 that was only 0.03 seconds off lap record pace. But what was even more impressive was that he lapped a total of nine laps inside the 2’06s compared to only five from his championship rival, Shane Byrne.

Now his crew chief Steve Hicken has the 2’05 barrier as his next target and is confident his rider can hit that mark tomorrow. The Buildbase team will only be making minor changes to the bike for FP3 – which involves a small change to the front end to help with braking.

“Kiyo is riding world class at the minute, but we have a bit more to go. I think we should be able to break a five tomorrow, and then try low sixes throughout the race. But Byrne is never far behind and is catching up with us so it will be an interesting race,” said Hicken, speaking to bikesportnews.com from the circuit this evening.

“We are just working hard to get the setting right for Kiyo. Tomorrow morning we will make a small change to the front end for braking stability and then we will see if that is good or bad, and then we will hopefully get the pace for a good qualifying.

“Kiyo has upped his game and it means a lot that he has signed for next year, and hopefully we can win the championship with him – but it won’t be easy.”

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