Ryan Vickers had a Thruxton weekend to remember in the ZYN British Superbike Championship, claiming a double race win to put Honda Racing UK back on top ahead of their home round at Cadwell Park on the August Bank Holiday weekend (August 29/30/31)
After showing strong pace throughout the free practice sessions and securing a direct spot in Q2, the Honda Racing UK rider headed into Saturday confident of achieving his best results of the season.
In soaring temperatures, Vickers flew to sixth place on the grid, ready for the opening 20-lap feature race of the weekend. Vickers produced his best performance of the season to date, collecting third place and his first trophy of the season in third place.
By half race distance, he was fighting for victory in a four-man dice. However, after leading with two laps to go, he lost out in the fight for victory on the final lap by just eight tenths of a second, crossing the line in third place.
However, Vickers would reign supreme on Sunday, taking a fantastic double victory. Starting from fifth on the grid for the opening, shorter race of the day, Vickers produced a stunning display to take the win. After dicing in the leading group throughout the race, he made his move at the end of the penultimate lap to take the victory, his first of the 2026 season.
Vickers was then embroiled in another scrap for supremacy in race three, taking victory by just 0.075s from Bradley Ray in the closest finish of the season.
Vickers said: "Thruxton was a fantastic weekend for me; I’m absolutely over the moon with it. Coming into the weekend I had high hopes, I’ve had success there before and I felt we’d put in a good performance and I was excited to see how the Honda would perform.
“Friday was actually a difficult day for us, myself and Jason did race runs in pretty much both free practice sessions, to mainly understand tyre life and how we could extract the best out of the bike. I was actually a little off my pace from when I was last there in 2024, so overnight we worked hard with the bike to improve it for Saturday, and we did just that.
“I was able to put in a good lap in qualifying, it put me sixth on the grid and I was a lot happier with the bike. Race one I had a target lap time of a 1:15.8 in mind, then after my first flying lap of 1:15.3 I wasn’t expecting that at all, but I was on the back of the leading group and I held in there for as long as I could, whilst saving my tyre the best I could. I was in a solid position and I felt really comfortable, but then the red flag came out, so to come home with a third place was great.
“Sunday was then amazing, I couldn’t have asked anymore really. The temperature was a little cooler than the previous two days, which helped us save our tyre a little more. I rode a really good second race, I was so pleased with the result for the team, we all deserved it for the effort we have put in.
“The bike probably wasn’t as good as what it was in race two, but we made it work and brought home the double, and honestly I was delighted with it. I really didn’t think it would be possible, everyone deserves it and it sends us into Cadwell with high hopes.”