British Superbike is a different world: Yamaha and Bradley Ray can still win the title

In the World Championship, Ducati’s rivals are largely out of the running. In British Superbike, especially in the most recent races, Honda has raised its voice with Ryan Vicker, while Yamaha with Bradley Ray, two rounds from the end, is still in contention even for the title.

In the last outing at Assen, in the Netherlands, a spectacular trip outside national borders, Bradley Ray lost ground to the Ducatis of Kyle Ryde and Scott Redding. However, he fought for the win right up to the checkered flag, particularly in race 2 when he was pipped by mere thousandths by Ryde in a mega sprint that also involved Redding, who had exited the final chicane in front. BSB is nonstop thrills.

The standings tell of a Kyle Ryde now launched toward a third consecutive BSB crown. The lead is 68 points over Scott Redding, while Ray trails 42 lengths behind the British Ducati rider. But with the particular showdown format, everything is still open: the three races at Donington, where they’re racing this week, award 75 points (25 for a single win). In the grand finale at Brands Hatch (October 18–19) there are 105 points up for grabs, with 35 for victory. So even the same Ducati Panigale V4 R steamrollering the World Championship at these latitudes can’t celebrate just yet.

Yamaha with Ray hasn’t won since the Oulton Park round, yet his consistency is impressive: in the eleven races since then he has only missed the podium three times. A level of performance that makes him a dangerous rival for the two Ducatis, particularly for Redding, who is the most immediate target.

The English rider heads to Donington in high spirits after the double podium in the Netherlands. “I can’t wait to race at Donington Park this weekend. It’s a circuit that suits both me and the Yamaha R1, and after the double podium at Assen we arrive with great feelings and a lot of momentum,” Ray explained.

The work on the BSB-spec R1 is paying off and the ambition is clear. “We’ve made great progress with the bike in the last rounds, and the goal now is to keep it going and fight for the podium in all three races.” Then his gaze turns straight to the rival. “Scott Redding has a 42-point advantage over us in second place, so we know every result counts, and we’ll work hard to start closing that gap.”

British Superbike increasingly seems like a different world compared to the top production-derived championship. In the WorldSBK round held in July, Ducati dominated as always, monopolizing the podium (nine places out of nine) and even lining up six bikes in a row at the finish of race 1. Yamaha took embarrassing gaps here: Xavi Vierge’s best results were ninth and tenth in the two long races, 25 and 26 seconds back respectively. Honda was nowhere to be seen, but Jake Dixon was still recovering from the injury suffered months earlier in Australian testing. Donington wasn’t the exception; the trend was more or less similar across all ten tracks in this World Championship.

Instead, with the technical regulations imposed by BSB, written with a completely different logic than the World Championship, Yamaha can still think big.

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