Kyle Ryde finally looked human on Saturday at Oulton Park, taking his first tumble off a bike in over a year and only managing 10th place in Qualifying.

Unfortunately for the rest of the field, a potential chink in the armour turned out to be nothing more than a few scuffs on his leathers.

The two-time defending British Superbike Champion simply brushed himself down and carried on his run of finishing on the podium in every race so far this season, extending his championship lead in the process.

Brad Ray rode superbly on his McAMS Raceways Yamaha all weekend – earning a win, a second and a third in the process – and Scott Redding recovered from illness to limit the damage with two podiums on Sunday. The problem they have is that Kyle Ryde is relentless.

Ryde certainly benefitted from the Safety Car in Race Two that enabled him to close the gap from third place to the front two, so it’s fair to question if that win was on the cards without it, but if there’s ever a case of someone earning their good luck then this was it. Ryde finished the weekend as the top points-scorer once again.

Top 10 Points Totals from the weekend

1. Kyle RYDE (52)
2. Bradley RAY (48)
3. Scott REDDING (41)
4. Ryan VICKERS (34)
5. Storm STACEY (28)
6. Leon HASLAM (25)
7. Max COOK (21)
8. Joe TALBOT (19)
9. Jason O’HALLORAN (17)
10. Lee JACKSON (16)

Ryan Vickers deservedly received plaudits from the TNT Sports crew for his sterling work on the Honda. Vickers and his team appear to have got the bike to a point where it is predictable and without major problems, such as the insane amount of front chatter we saw at Snetterton. Thruxton hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for Ducati in recent years and Cadwell was by far the best round of the season for the Honda UK team last year, so the next two rounds may well be Vickers’ chance to bag a podium or two.

Storm Stacey and his Bathams AJN Racing Ducati have had a torrid couple of rounds of technical problems and when he had an uncharacteristic slip off in Warm-Up on Sunday you feared that bad luck would scupper him again. Finishing as the fifth-highest points scorer has to be seen as a good return in the circumstances, even if his race results still weren’t quite what Storm was hoping for.

Arguably you could say the same for Max Cook. We’re all waiting for him to take the next big step and when he broke the circuit record to claim pole position it looked like this might be the weekend when he took his first BSB win. Coming home with 21 points from the weekend is a bit disappointing in that context, yet after his high-speed crash in Race One it was a relief to even see him lining up on the grid on Sunday.

The Rest

Jt-11. Glenn IRWIN (13)
Jt-11. Rory SKINNER (13)
Jt-11. Ilya MIKHALCHIK (13)
Jt-11. Christian IDDON (13)
15. Josh BROOKES (9)
16. Fraser ROGERS (5)
Jt-17. Rhys IRWIN (4)
Jt-17. Charlie NESBITT (4)
19. Danny KENT (2)
20. Richard KERR (1)
Non-scorers: Graeme IRWIN, Brayden ELLIOTT, Daniel BROOKS and Joe SHELDON-SHAW

The only person on this second list who will be content is probably Ilya Mikhalchik. As the only person running the unfancied BMW (in BSB spec anyway), we have to be realistic as to how quickly he can make progress in his debut BSB season. Oulton was definitely another positive weekend for the Ukrainian.

It’s a different story for Glenn Irwin and Danny Kent given their own expectations coming into 2026.

It’s been one issue after another for Irwin on the new Ducati Panigale V4 and losing most of Friday due to technical problems, including needing a new engine, continued that unhappy trend. It must be particularly galling considering the way his teammate has adapted so quickly to the Ducati.

We all know not to write off Glenn Irwin, but he knows as well as anyone that he needs to start getting results in the second half of this season. A certain bespectacled Yamaha rider surely will be eyeing up Irwin’s bike for 2027 if not.

As for Danny Kent, it’s difficult to know quite what to think about the former Moto 3 World Champion’s lack of performance. He was unlucky on Sunday, missing Race Two as his team replaced an engine and then crashing in Race Three due to a mechanical fault spilling fluid onto his rear tyre, although his pace was at the back end of the points anyway.

Thruxton has been kind to him in the past and he’ll go into his home round with pressure on his shoulders to show a bit of form.