Kyle Ryde is aiming to make history in the 2026 ZYN British Superbike Championship by becoming the first rider to win consecutive titles for two different manufacturers as he prepares to kick off his title defence at Oulton Park this Bank Holiday weekend (May 2/3/4).
Ryde scored back-to-back titles in 2024 and 2025 and now the team have moved to Ducati for the forthcoming season as the double champion aims to match Niall Mackenzie’s feat from 1996 to 1998. The Nitrous Coin Nitrous Competitions Racing rider topped last week’s final R&G Official Test and is now bidding to continue his title defence with a strong performance at the season opener.
Ryde said: “So after the test that we did last week, there were good signs and now going into round 1 we’re hoping for the same sort of weather that we had at the test! The bike has been working really well and we’ve not made too many changes yet because we were learning the bike and we were already quite fast. There’s a lot of things to try with the bike still, but we have a great starting point.
“Credit to all the team for getting everything ready for round one; it’s not going to be easy but we’ll give it our best shot and hopefully we can have a good weekend as we try and go for the three-peat.”