Ryde leads Irwin ahead of Circuito de Navarra season opener

The 2024 Bennetts British Superbike Championship kicked off with the opening R&G Official Test at Donington Park and Kyle Ryde set the benchmark to hold off Glenn Irwin to top the times on the OMG GRILLA Yamaha Racing R1 ahead of the Circuito de Navarra season opener (April 20-21).

Ryde had been the target ahead of the final session, upping the pace throughout the day as the local contender picked up where he left off at the end of 2023, pushing for the leading positions. In the last session of the weekend the threat of rain increased, but Ryde was ready for a final attack and on his first flying lap he became the only rider to dip into the 1m:27s barrier to maintain his edge.

Glenn Irwin had been closing the gap in the afternoon, but the Hager PBM Ducati rider didn’t get the chance to push for a flying lap before the rain started and he ended the opening weekend of testing in second place, 0.523s adrift of Ryde.

Irwin split the two OMG GRILLA Yamaha Racing teammates, who had been locked at the top for the majority of the weekend as Ryan Vickers held third overall at the chequered flag.

Andrew Irwin was leading the Honda Racing UK charge in fourth place and just 0.063s ahead of his teammate and reigning champion Tommy Bridewell, whilst Peter Hickman completed the top six for the FHO Racing BMW Motorrad Team as four manufacturers featured inside the top six positions.

Danny Kent had a strong start to his move to Yamaha for the new season with a seventh place on the McAMS Racing Yamaha, equalling the same best time as Hickman, whilst the pair were only 0.001s ahead of Jason O’Halloran on the Completely Motorbikes Kawasaki.

Dean Harrison ensured all three Honda Racing UK riders featured inside the top ten, with Leon Haslam completing the leading ten riders after the opening weekend of official testing as the Championship now looks ahead to the season opener at Circuito de Navarra in Northern Spain.

Bennetts British Superbike Championship Series Director Stuart Higgs commented: “After what seemed to be a very long winter, it’s great to get the season underway with the official test at Donington Park. We were quite lucky with the weather, so we saw some meaningful lap times put in.

“It’s great to see the first evidence of the new technical regulations and new confined choice on tyre material, new liveries, new team and rider combinations, so it’s always a very exciting and motivating weekend.

“The lap time performances have shown that there’s a great deal of depth of competition amongst everybody. One small caveat, we did see some rogue lap times, as it was an official test, the full track limits monitoring capability wasn’t in place, so we will get to see more representative times when we reconvene in just nine days at Circuito de Navarra.

“Right now the paddock and everybody are packing and we head south. Hopefully we’ll see some of you there and for those that aren’t making the trip; you’ll be able to see all the action live and free-to-air on Quest.”

Bennetts British Superbike Championship, R&G Official Test, Donington Park, combined times: