BSB: Kyle’s “Ryde” to the title in brilliant Brands hatch finale

Not often does a national bike race meeting make the whole motorsport world stop, but alas last weekends British Superbike meeting did.

 

Race one 

A chaotic race in the wet provided a lot of action with three title contenders becoming two in the first race of the weekend.

While Danny Kent took his first win in his 100th race in the championship, the biggest moment was when third place in the title fight and championship outsider Glenn Irwin slid off his Hager PBM Ducati at Graham Hill bend and ended his chance of a championship.

The two main title contenders in OMG Yamaha’s Kyle Ryde and Honda Racing UK’s Tommy Bridewell finished fourth and third respectively which put just one point between them going into the final race day of 2024.

Race two 

An absolute titanic battle took place in the weekends sprint race with Bridewell pushing Ryde all the way to take the win and championship point going into race three.

With a very slim four point lead in the championship Bridewell ensured that the final race of 32 in 2024 would be a winner takes all gladiatorial fight for the biggest prize in British racing.

Race Three

As is tradition in BSB, the last race of the season was one of the greatest races of all . Most will regard Hopkins V Hill in 2011 as the best race of all time but race three has challenged that.

While the first few laps were a slow warm up, by halfway it was epic with Ryde in the lead and Bridewell in second. The front two broke away and built a gap of 1.6-two seconds, while they each exchanged the lead and exchanged the championship.

It all came down to the last two laps with Ryde managing to get past Bridewell on the last lap after failing the previous lap and even coming into contact with Bridewell as they both went down pilgrims drop.

The last lap was an all timer with Bridewell just managing to hold of Ryde until they got to Hawthorn Bend and Ryde managed to get past.

While Bridewell briefly got past, Ryde cemented his lead into Westfield and then as Bridewell had no grip, Ryde became the 2024 BSB champion for the first time by one single point in a memorable season long battle with Bridewell.

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