Scare at Thruxton: Cook makes contact and crashes on the straight, Ryde makes it thirteen

There was everything and more in the first British Superbike showdown on Thruxton’s ultra-fast ring. Here the law of the wild pack still reigns with overtakes in quick succession: the incredible battle was decided by the usual Kyle Ryde, claiming his 13th win in 18 races and further extending his lead in the BSB, a series he already won in 2024-25.

But Ducati didn’t dance alone: Yamaha and Honda joined the podium, fighting it out right up to the early finish. The show was stopped three laps from the end by Max Cook’s terrifying crash on the main straight. Trying to fend off Leon Haslam for fourth place, the young Bimota rider, exiting Club corner, touched the front of the former world runner-up’s Ducati.

A minor contact, but the consequences were severe: the KB998 Rimini shot toward the barrier on the left side of the track, hitting it with great force. Cook also slammed into the guard rail, a frightening incident that led to an immediate red flag. The organizers have not yet released information on Max Cook’s condition. The fact that TV replayed the crash several times suggests there are no serious consequences. Still, there was a lot of fear.

Scott Redding rocketed off the line, nullifying rival Kyle Ryde’s pole position. The former MotoGP rider led for twelve of the twenty laps, but when the tires began to give up, Ryde closed in and got past Redding after a series of spectacular position swaps. Then Scott, struggling for grip, slipped to fifth at the time of the stoppage. A superb performance by Rory Skinner’s Yamaha, which closed to just six tenths from the Ducati, and by Ryan Vickers’ Honda, eight tenths back. Who knows how it would have ended without the red flag. In the results the top five were covered by just two seconds: Ducati wins here too but, unlike in the World Championship, there’s technical parity.

Super show and a thrilling finale also in the short (12-lap) Supersport race, which saw seven riders going at it hammer and tongs from start to finish. There’s a World Championship flavor at Thruxton thanks to Can Oncu, on loan to the McAMS Yamaha team to replace Ben Currie, immediately at loggerheads with another WSSP protagonist, Triumph protégé Oliver Bayliss. It was precisely the rivalry between these two World Championship cockerels that decided the race, at the final corner. Can Oncu, in the lead, was attacked aggressively by Bayliss Junior, with the result that both ran a bit wide, opening the door for Luke Stapleford to slip through on the inside and give victory to the Honda CBR. In the World Championship the medium-displacement machine from the Tokyo giant is elusive; here it’s the absolute star.

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