Honda beats Ducati: is the Superbike revolution starting in BSB?

Unbelievable: the Honda CBR-RR, the World Championship’s tail-ender for years, thrashes Ducati in British Superbike. In round eight on Cadwell Park’s fantastic rollercoaster, Ryan Vickers celebrated an indisputable double, putting the Panigale V4 R of Kyle Ryde on the ropes, with the latter forced to think about the championship.

The red starship didn’t just pay the price to Honda, but also to Yamaha, with Bradley Ray taking it down to the wire on this electrifying Summer Bank Holiday Monday, the UK’s end-of-summer celebration.

Cadwell is a unique track, worlds away from WorldSBK circuits. The track is a razor-thin ribbon of asphalt that rises and falls over the hills, up to the famed Mountain, a crest where these 240-hp Superbikes literally take flight. Given the technical regulations are also very different from the convoluted tangle of rules spawned by the infamous WorldSBK algorithm, the technical comparison isn’t orthodox, but it’s highly compelling. Honda and Yamaha, the World Championship’s big strugglers, are sensationally raising their heads across the Channel. Ryan Vickers started this season with the handbrake on, but he’s won three of the last four races, including his stamp two weeks earlier at Snetterton. Yamaha with Bradley Ray has been pestering the Ducatisti for several rounds now.

The Japanese brands attack, but Ducati only wobbles so much, because Kyle Ryde never betrays. The former Puccetti Racing rider, and once Jonathan Rea’s protégé, hasn’t been champion for two years by chance. Fast, winning, and extremely strategic: when he can’t do it, as at Cadwell, he doesn’t go looking for trouble, and in the end the math works out. With three podiums (second on Sunday, twice third on Monday), he ultimately scored more points than Vickers and Ray, who on the eve had sensationally crashed chasing Rory Skinner in vain. After that triumphant day, this time Skinner made two mistakes himself. Ryde, instead, is relentless and goes home with the prestigious King of the Mountain trophy. And of course, he’s ever more the BSB leader: the third title is a little closer.

In the Ducati camp, Scott Redding is in freefall—only ninth and fifteenth on a catastrophic day for his title hopes. With three events to go, the gap to points leader Kyle Ryde has risen to 71 points. Luckily for him, the particular scoring mechanism used in British Superbike, which we explain in detail here, lends a hand. From the next round at Assen in the Netherlands, on September 19–20, the Showdown begins with boosted scoring at 25 points for a win (also in the following Donington round) and an additional bonus of 35 points (for each of the three races) in the grand finale at Brands Hatch. But catching the Kyle Ryde war machine will still be a tall order.

One wonders if the World Championship’s organizers spend a few hours streaming BSB races. It’s really worth it, because here you get battles, changing winners, and a credible technical contest. Besides Honda and Yamaha, Bimota is flying too, with Joe Talbot spending the whole day trading blows with Kyle Ryde’s Panigale. Above all, everywhere, BSB packs the stands: with its hills crammed with people, Cadwell Park looked like a mini MotoGP Mugello. From the lofty perch of the world championship’s prestige, taking a page from a national series that works brilliantly wouldn’t be a bad idea.

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