Ryan Vickers heads to his home round of Snetterton for the next round of the ZYN British Superbike Championship next weekend (July 3/4/5) boosted by a strong performance at Knockhill when he claimed a pair of hard-fought fourth place finishes.
Vickers delivered a determined fourth place in the opening race of the weekend, before crashing out of race two, but following a complete rebuild of the CBR1000RR-R SP Fireblade from the Honda Racing UK team, he was back in the fight in race three to take another fourth place. The Championship now heads to Snetterton, for Thetford-born Vickers’ home round, something that he is eagerly awaiting.
Vickers said: “It was an extremely positive weekend in truth, I’m very, very happy with the progress we have made. The Honda Racing guys have been working hard the last few weeks on the bike in the background to make me feel more comfortable with it, and going to Knockhill I was feeling very optimistic.
“We had no dry track time on Friday because of the weather conditions, but thankfully when the weather cleared on Saturday the bike felt really good, we still had work to do but the team did great job on improving my feeling and I managed to qualify seventh and bring home fourth in the first race. I was happy with that. We were able to make passes and brought ourselves into the battle for the podium, which we were only six tenths of a second away from.
“I had a small crash in the sprint race, I made a mistake and unfortunately the team had to rebuild me a brand-new bike, they had a massive job on, but they did fantastic, fair play to the boys it was faultless. I started the final race from fourth after the red flag and I was able to be in the battle, I got away with the group, I matched their pace for 95% of the race and I felt comfortable.
“That result in the last race proved that we can run with the front riders in this championship. When we get things right, we can battle for podiums but clearly small changes equal progress and we made some last weekend. Knockhill is such a demanding circuit to race, but I kept digging away and we not only maintained our position but ran in a podium position for a few laps as well. That felt great.
“I wouldn’t have been able to push like I did had the team not managed a rebuild so well. The bike felt identical to the bike that I crashed, this is a great measure of the quality and dedication from my team and from Honda. Yes, there’s still improvements to make and we’ll keep working on making them, but I’m pleased for me and the team that we can see some progress. Overall we’ve made a big step, I’m very happy with our work and I want to keep this momentum going forward into the next round at Snetterton, which is my home round.
“I am really looking forward to Snetterton. It’s obviously a track I didn’t go to last year when I was in the World Championship, but I always have a great attendance of fans and personal sponsors of mine. I am really excited to get back there after a year away.
“It’s a track that I enjoy and a track that the Honda Racing UK team have had some good results at, so I am looking forward to getting there and seeing what we can do. Hopefully, we can make some more progression and I hope to fight for the podium and put on a good race and a good show for all of my home fans.”