Rory Skinner came out on top in a dramatic opening British Superbike Championship race of the Bank Holiday weekend at Cadwell Park.
Skinner made the perfect start from second on the grid to snatch the lead away from Bradley Ray , with the pair pulling away from the pack in the opening laps.
However, Ray crashed at Park Corner on lap five whilst trying to go down the inside of Skinner, leaving the Scot all by himself at the front with an advantage of over two seconds. Ray almost ran off the track at the same corner on the lap prior to his fall when he ran in too hot.
Left unchallenged, Skinner kept his cool to take the chequered flag and celebrated his third BSB victory. It’s the first time that Skinner has won away from Knockhill, whilst he now has victories for BMW , Ducati and Yamaha .
Kyle Ryde recovered from a slow getaway to finish second after a battle with Leon Haslam, with the latter completing the podium for Moto Rapido Racing Ducati.
Scott Redding finished fourth and limit the damage in the championship. The 2019 champion is now 51 points behind Ryde, but that number could have easily been higher given his 10 th place grid slot.
Jason O’Halloran and Lee Jackson both celebrated their best results of the season so far in fifth and sixth respectively, with Max Cook battling through the pain barrier to finish seventh in his first race back since his huge crash at Thruxton .
Danny Kent finished eighth ahead of Josh Brookes, who was handed a long-lap equivalent time penalty of two seconds following an incident with Glenn Irwin which caused the latter to crash at Park Corner on lap 10.
Ilya Mikhalchik completed the top 10 ahead of Fraser Rogers and Rhys Irwin, whilst former Cadwell Park podium finisher Charlie Nesbitt finished 13 th .
Luke Hedger and Eugene McManus secured the final two points, with the returning Danny Buchan finishing his first race since 2024 in 16 th . Brayden Elliot was the final classified rider.
Christian Iddon pulled off the circuit on the opening lap due to a technical problem with his Sencat Racing Yamaha.
Storm Stacey crashed out of fourth at Park Corner a few seconds after Ray went down, whilst Richard Kerr returned to pit-lane at the end of lap six to retire.
Ryan Vickers came in too deep into Park Corner and crashed whilst attempting to overtake Honda teammate Jason O’Halloran on lap nine, taking out Joe Talbot in the process. Talbot was running in fourth in his first-ever outing at Cadwell Park as a Superbike rider.
The pair of them shook hands afterwards, however the incident was placed under investigation. Vickers was later handed a three-place grid penalty for Race Two and given three penalty points.
Sports Reporter - Motorcycle racing enthusiast Josh joined the MCN team in 2019. He studied Sports Journalism at the University of Sunderland, leaving with a 2:1 and a Gold Standard Diploma in Journalism from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). Introduced to the world of motorcycle racing by his dad as a youngster, Josh became a fan of MotoGP, WorldSBK and BSB. Like many, Josh became a huge Valentino Rossi supporter…little did he know that years later he would ask a question or two to the man himself.
Sports Reporter and fan of all things motorsport