Kyle Ryde says he cannot wait to get his 2024 Bennetts British Superbike Championship campaign underway after emerging as the form man during two days of official pre-season testing at Donington Park.
The 27-year old was in command at the Leicestershire circuit for the majority of the weekend test, which marked the first official gathering of this year’s BSB riders and teams.
Quickest in all but the very first session of the test, Ryde would end the weekend with a benchmark lap of 1m 27.650secs on the OMG GRILLA Yamaha R1 set in the sixth and final outing.
That placed him more than half-a-second clear of closest rival Glenn Irwin as he and the OMG GRILLA Racing team - competing as Yamaha’s official nominated factory representative in BSB for the first time this year - demonstrated a strong show of strength ahead of the opening round on 20-21 April.
“It’s been a great couple of days at Donington Park to start 2024. To be honest it took ages to get used to riding the R1 again having ridden my R6 in Spain over winter.
“We found some speed on Saturday afternoon despite not feeling too comfortable so on Sunday we worked on fine-tuning everything to get me both comfortable and fast and in the final two sessions the bike felt as good as it’s ever been so props to the guys on my side for that.
“I’m looking forward to getting to Navarra with the confidence that I’m in.”
A six-time race winner in 2023, Ryde comes into the new season as one of the title favourites after finishing third overall in the standings behind the PBM BeerMonster Ducatis of Tommy Bridewell and Glenn Irwin.
