In 2 weeks time Kyle will hopefully be racing at the last 2 CEV rounds in Spain which will also be the last time the 125′s will be ridden at this series as there being replaced with the new class of Moto3 which will be 250 four strokes.

90% of the feild will be ex GP bikes, Aprilia, Derbi and KTM’s so Kyle’s Honda will have to be on top form as its been all season in the UK.

Unfortunatley the team are struggleing to find all the funds needed to compete at these last 2 meetings and is seeking any fianacial support that would be available for Kyle to show what he can do in this series that is the stepping stone to Motogp.

If you could help please contact us at kyle.ryde@ntlworld.com

Thanks

Team77

Kyle Ryde becomes the youngest ever Motorcycle Road Racing Champion!

The Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in Kent became the arena for the finale of the Sunoco British 125cc Motorcycle road racing Championships.

The series Leader 14 year old Kyle Ryde goes into this final round with an eleven point lead over Racing Step Foundation sponsored Wayne Ryan, who incidentally is on a new full specification Aprilia Grand Prix machine for this ultimate round.

Friday was the day for free practise and largely used for the set-up of the bikes. This day saw them using the 1.2mile Indy circuit. Due to the local council noise regulations, the qualifying sessions on Saturday they used the full Grand Prix circuit that come race day the riders will have to do battle on.  Fridays practise saw the main contenders for the championship title: Ryde, Ryan and local hero Rob Guiver, all putting in good lap times. However, towards the end of the free practise time Kyle dropped the bike at Druids; he himself was fine, just some minor damage to the machine.

Back out on track on Saturday, the two qualifying sessions saw the action become even hotter as the main two young Gladiators, Ryde & Ryan fought it out for pole position! The first session saw Ryan staying at the top of the Leader Board all through the 25minute session, with Kyle coming in a close second place with a 0.3 seconds difference. Rob Guiver was 0.1 seconds down on Kyle’s time making up the top three positions.

The second qualifying session was in the afternoon straight after the Superbike’s Qualifying session. Again the leading contenders were straight into the groove with Ryan, Ryde, Guiver, Hedger & Ray all showing their cards up front! As the second session developed though, you could see that it was going to be a psychological battle between the two youngsters at the front Ryde & Ryan, as lap by lap they became quicker & quicker, posting faster times through the various speed check sectors out on the circuit. By the ninth lap of this second session Ryan had been the quickest, but then Kyle managed to up his pace and put in a quick lap and by the tenth lap was 0.03 seconds in front! This was to be short lived as Ryan picked the pace up again on his new Aprilia machine and retained the top spot for the remainder of the session, finishing off by having a 0.6 second advantage over Kyle, who in turn has a 0.7 lead over 3^rd place man Rob Guiver.

The front row of the grid for the final British Championship 125cc race of the season was to be Ryan on pole with Ryde second, Guiver third and Hedger in fourth. Sunday’s race was delayed due to earlier incidents on the track during the previous races; it was also cut from twelve laps to nine. Kyle, for once, was nervous for the race and as he led the two sighting laps this didn’t really show as he was soon out there doing what he does best and that’s riding a motorcycle.

As the red lights went out the full pack of twenty-nine machines headed for the notorious right hand corner of Paddock Hill Bend.  Kyle led the pack down the hill and up to Druids corner for the first couple of laps but all the time Ryan & Guiver, his two nearest rivals in the Championship, were well on his heels! Eventually they both managed to get the better of Kyle, who only had to finish in third place to secure the Championship, so with the two contenders starting to really push the machines to the limits, Kyle just
took a back seat watched the action and enjoyed!

In the later stages of the race Kyle did start to come under serious threat from Luke Hedger & Bradley Ray who were having their own battle for fourth & fifth places and starting to reel Kyle in.

However, Kyle turned up the pace again and started to open up a safe gap between himself & Hedger in order to secure the Championship; this safety net paid off and he came through the chequered flag in a well thought out third place behind Ryan & Guiver thus making him the Sunoco British 125cc GP Motorcycle Road Racing Champion 2011!

Kyle’s achievement will go down in British Motorcycle Racing history as well as becoming the youngest to win a British Championship race  (5 in total now); he also becomes the youngest ever Motorcycle Road Racing Champion at 14 yrs 2 months and 17 days old!! Some achievement that will be very hard to beat!

Not only has Kyle won the British Championship, Kyle has also won the ACU Academy Cup, which is a separate Championship run within the 125cc Championship; this is especially for the young riders between the ages of 13 yrs of age & 16 yrs of age. For wining this title Kyle and the Team have the entry fees for the last two rounds of the Spanish CEV Championship paid for, which will be held at the Jerez & Valencia GP circuits during November.

Kyle and his Family would like to say a huge thank you to all the sponsors and Team 77 fans!

Four out of Four

Kyle Ryde’s racing ability grows from strength to
strength, as this past weekend saw him in action again at the Silverstone Grand
Prix circuit in Northamptonshire, for the penultimate round of the British
125cc Motorcycle Road Racing Championship.

After tasting glory in the last three rounds of this series, which is run along side
the British Superbike Championship, young Ryde set the early pace in free
practise on Friday, by setting the fastest times, but by the second free
practise, Aprillia Superteen Champion Wayne Ryan was gaining on Kyle and had
closed the gap for the next day qualifying sessions.

In the first Qualifying Wayne Ryan came out on top with Kyle a strong second
place, however Kyle only managed around half the timed session as he was
suffering mechanical problems, so the team were under a lot of pressure to get
the machine running right for the second session later in the afternoon.
However the team persevered and managed to put Kyle out for the thirty-minute
session and Kyle got onto the pole position for the race on Sunday by 1.25
seconds over Wayne Ryan, one of Kyle’s fiercest rivals along with Rob Guiver
for the 125cc Championship Trophy.

Sundays race day came and Kyle was second
fastest in warm up, as Wayne Ryan’s Aprillia was really going quick around the
GP circuit and Kyle was certainly going to have a battle on his hands with this
other contender for the 125cc Title.  The
race itself was to be one of the last of the day and didn’t start until around 5.15pm, so tensions were mounting
high in the paddock as these young guns waited for their turn to enter the
arena.

The 125cc machines went out on their sighting lap as the final Superbike Race
winners were being given their awards and celebrating their wins, whilst they
had done their work for the weekend, for the 125 racers it was just beginning.

As the red lights went out, it was instantly showing that it was going to be a two
horse race, Ryde versus Ryan!  Lap by lap
these two youngsters, swapped places. This was really entertaining for the
crowd, which had stayed on to witness these two young warriors fighting for
each bit of the tarmac course. Kyle couldn’t break Ryan’s pace, as the Aprillia
was fast on the straights, so what Kyle’s Honda machine lacked on the straights
he had to make up on the bends and this he did every time Ryan got the better
of him and this was how the race continued with the rest of the pack a mere
twenty nine seconds behind!

As the final lap arrived; Ryde & Ryan were still changing places by every
corner, with Ryde using all his knowledge and corner speed in order to get the
better of the quicker machine of Ryan as they entered the final corner towards
the chequered flag, Ryan was leading just! Kyle grabbed an opportunity with a
manoeuvre up the inside into the last corner and taking the Flag by a mere
0.067 seconds. Rob Guiver came home in third place twenty nine seconds down
from the two youngsters’; this is Kyle’s fourth win in a row in this British
125cc Championship.

Kyle has now extended his Championship lead over Wayne Ryan from six points to
eleven points, with Rob Guiver sixteen points behind. Kyle is also leading the
ACU Academy Cup from Wayne Ryan by seven points.

The final round of the British 125cc Championship series takes place 0n Sunday Oct
9th at the Brands Hatch circuit inKent.

Hurricane
Ryde!

As ‘Hurricane Katia’ started to hit the shores of the UK
over the weekend, another Hurricane in the form of a youngster called Kyle Ryde
was whipping up a storm at the Donington
Race circuit; in order to stamp his authority on the British 125cc
Motorcycle Championship aboard his Ryan Saxelby prepared machine.

Ryde started the weekend’s event in a strong third place in
the Championship standings with only six points between himself and the
Championship leader Wayne Ryan, with Veteran 125 racer and twice runner-up in
the series Rob Guiver in second place, only two points ahead of Kyle.

Kyle attacked the practise sessions as he meant to go on
during the weekend’s proceedings and quickly set the pace for others to try and
follow.  So with Guiver, Championship
Leader Ryan, Hedger, Ray and Lincoln’s Lee
Jackson making up the top six places, this set the front row’s of the grid for
Sundays race, which took place between the main British Superbike races. Kyle
by the end of the two qualifying sessions was on pole with a 1.9 second gap on
Guiver.

Sunday’s races looked liked they could be hampered by the
winds of ‘Katia’ and this would have especially affected these tiny 125cc GP
machine’s with their also light riders on them!
However the winds were breezy but nothing like what the forecasters had
predicted, this was both lucky for the riders and the teams alike, as finding
the right gearing for these bikes in blustery conditions can be a bit of a
nightmare.

As Ryde headed out on the warm-up lap of the 2.48.mile Grand
Prix circuit, he was soon to realise that he was having problems with his
clutch, as this was beginning to show signs of it starting to slip; this
dilemma came to his father attention once they reformed on the grid for the
start of the race. All that Sean could say to Kyle was that he would have to
ride around this problem and do the best he can with it!  This was going to cause major problems if he
didn’t take too much care, but as the red lights went out young Ryde just saw
the red-mist and off he went straight into the lead by Redgate Corner, the
first right corner on the circuit.

Kyle even with the severe clutch problem, stayed ahead
during the entire race and consistently put in good lap times.  Whilst further back; battles were taking
place for 2^nd 3^rd and 4^th and 5^th
places respectively. The first battling duo were Kyle’s ex-team mate from
several years ago Bradley Ray chased by Rob Guiver, with Ray having his best
ride all season and eventually brought his machine home in a very credible
second place, Guiver was third, with championship leader Wayne Ryan eventually
taking fourth place, Luke Hedger was 0.2 seconds behind Ryan crossing the
finishing line.

Ryde set up a 16.1 second buffer on the pursuing pack when
he came through the chequered flag, setting yet another very convincing win in
this championship, along with a new lap record in the process. He has now had
four wins, two second places, one sixth place and two DNF’s (Did Not
Finish).  This now gives Kyle a six point
lead in the 125 GP Championship with Ryan second and Guiver now in third
place.  Kyle is also now leading the ACU
Academy Cup by two points from Ryan, this Championship is run as separate
results, especially for the younger riders between the ages of 13 and 16yrs of
age. This Academy Cup has an end of season prize of two paid entries into the
Spanish CEV Championship, which takes place at the Valencia & Jerez circuits
in November.

Kyle’s next round is the penultimate round of this British
championship at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in Northamptonshire during
the weekend of the 23^rd-25^th September.

                                                                                                                             Photograph
Kindly supplied by

Steve Gough

MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB FOR RYDE

Young Motorcycle ace Kyle Ryde; the 14 year old whiz kid
from Jacksdale in Nottinghamshire, has literally had a Mountain to climb this
weekend, whilst racing in the 9^th round of the Sunoco British 125GP
Championship Races, this being the Mountain Circuit of Cadwell Park in
Lincolnshire over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Ryde went into the weekends races placed in 3^rd
position overall in the Championship, with the Leader being Essex
veteran Rob Guiver with another young hopeful Wayne Ryan in 2^nd
place.

Kyle was looking to try and make his deficit points up,
which he has lost during his Moto GP Redbull Rookie races in Europe,
so that this puts him back in the running for the winners rostrum at the end of
the season.

Fridays free practise was just a warm up really for the
two qualifying sessions to come, with these it became a two man battle between
Kyle & Rob Guiver, as most of the other contenders were around two seconds
behind them both.

The second session was a wet one and this was worrying for
the team, as Kyle had lost much of his confidence in the wet conditions, after
his crash at Thruxton whilst in 3^rd place early in the season.
However; Kyle’s Father Sean had sent Kyle in the morning session out on slick
tyres on a damp track, this must have given Kyle his much needed confidence
back, Guiver didn’t go out in this wet session, however Kyle finished up in 2^nd
place 0.025 behind him. So with these two sessions out of the way, this set the
scene for them to do battle.  With Guiver
on pole position, Ryde 2^nd and placed in the centre , then Wayne
Ryan taking up the final slot on the front row of the grid.

Ryde had laid his cards out all weekend to the other
riders and after the morning warm-up on race day, Kyle commented on how good
the bike felt, he said it was handling much better than during the previous
qualifying sessions, this was soon to be reflected as he set the quickest time
in the raceday 10 minute warm up session and was 0.45 quicker than pole sitter
Guiver, whilst being 0.25 quicker than his best own qualifying time, this was
surely going to give him the edge that he required to win.

Race day and due to earlier incidents in the race schedule
tensions were running high in the Team 77 camp, so as the timetable for the event
was running late, the event organisers reduced the race laps by two to a twelve
lap race.

As the lights went out Ryde went for the hole-shot and
took the lead straight away, soon getting into a good race pace and setting
consistent lap times lap after lap, This was to leave Kyle out in front with no
worries of his race position being compromised.

Meanwhile, Guiver,
Ryan, Watson, & Jackson were all battling it out for 2^nd, 3^rd
4^th & 5^th respectively.  This became the scene for much of the race,
with Kyle gaining seconds on this pack by each lap, until on round ten, as
Guiver attacked the Mountain section his chain came off the sprocket and that
was to be the end of this round for the Championship leader.

By the end of the twelve-lap race, Kyle came through the
Chequered flag an astonishing fourteen and a half seconds ahead of the second
place rider of Wayne Ryan, followed by Watson, Jackson & Tom Carne in fifth
place.

This result has now put Ryde back into contention for the
Championship, he’s now in second place with only 6 points adrift from current
leader Guiver, with three rounds remaining it’s now anybodies for the taking,
‘watch this space’.

Kyle’s next race meeting is the Final round of the MotoGP
Redbull Rookies Cup at the Misano circuit in Italy
at the weekend.

Then he will contend the three remaining British Rounds at
Donington on the weekend of 9^th / 11^th Sept, Silverstone
23^rd / 25^th Sept and the Final round of the series at
Brands Hatch on the weekend of 7^th / 9^thOctober.

Birthday Bonus for Ryde.

Moto GP Redbull Rookie Kyle Ryde, has been in action nearer home this weekend at the 8th round of the British 125cc Championship on the International Brands Hatch circuit in Kent. Youngster Ryde, who incidentally had his fourteenth Birthday only a couple of weeks ago, is hoping to gain some of the pace and race Leader board positions back; after having missed the last round at Oulton Park in Cheshire, due to his Moto GP Redbull Rookie commitments.

Friday At Brands Hatch was a day of free practise time so this really was the day to dial the machine in ready for the two qualifying sessions on Saturday and Kyle did just that finishing the session in 2nd place overall.

Saturday though was to be a different day! The first qualifier Kyle came out fighting and for the first 5 laps of the session was the fastest rider out on circuit. Then all the other riders upped their game and it led into a close knit battle between Scotsman McPhee, Championship Leader Guiver, Rogers, Ryde and Hedger. Kyle and Luke Hedger were constantly swapping positions, so this saw the pair moving from a position on the front row to a place on the second row. Kyle eventually got the better of Luke Hedger and finished in fourth place in the morning qualifier.

By the afternoon Youngster Ryde was really out to try and better his early morning times. This was almost a repeat of the morning session, but instead of Kyle having to fight with Luke Hedger, it was Racing Steps Foundation rider Wayne Ryan that he had to contend with. Again positions were changing every lap and with 6 minutes to go, Kyle pitted, then he returned out to put in a quick lap, which hoisted him to second place on the grid with around 3 minutes of the session remaining. However in the last remaining minutes both Ryan and Guiver fought back and overhauled Ryde to gain 2nd & 3rd places respectively, with 0.05 seconds difference between being 2nd or 4th on the grid! So for Sunday’s race Kyle at least has a front row start position.

Race day and Kyle threw down the gauntlet in the early morning warm up session. During these 4 warm up laps, Kyle went from 5th fastest to end the session 2nd by 0.01 seconds difference from Ryan, with Guiver third quickest. Spanish Championship riders McPhee & Rodgers had decided to not take part in the race, so as not to interrupt the Championship positions.

The mid-day race was delayed by around ten minutes and was also reduced in laps from a fourteen lap race to an eleven lap one.

So as tension mounted on the grid, the lights went off and the pack headed towards Paddock Hill Bend, Luke Hedger who started at the side of Kyle had a very poor start and by lap two was down in eleventh position. Kyle was in a strong third position with Guiver in front and Ryan setting the pace.

This was how the race was going to be set out, with these three taking the lead and making a break from the pursuing pack. On the fourth lap Kyle had set the quickest lap of the race, achieving a 1.35.634 minute lap of the full International circuit, but he was still in 3rd place! By the next lap he had managed to overhaul both Guiver & Ryan and took the lead for the first time; this was to be short lived. As by lap seven he was back in 3rd place again with Championship leader Rob Guiver taking his turn to take the lead role and Ryan second.

As the final three laps remained, Ryan managed to take the lead once again and it looked for a period of time that Kyle was being dropped off the pace a little, but as the final lap approached Kyle was once again on the back of Guiver’s bike and looking for a way to pass, coming into Clearways he had managed to get a manoeuvre on Guiver and got onto the rear of leading rider Wayne Ryan. Entering the start and finish line, Kyle was looking to go for the chequered flag and he did so. Kyle took the race win by 0.035 seconds from Ryan in 2nd place and Guiver in third, Luke Hedger with his poor start managed to crawl his way back to a well deserved 4th place.

This was Kyle’s second win of the season in the British 125cc Championship. His next race is with the Moto GP Redbull Rookies at the Czech Republic circuit of Bruno on the 12th & 13th August. Whilst his next British Championship round is the August Bank Holiday meeting at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire.

Please note: Photograph Kindly supplied by Steve Gough

Tuscany Thunder

Young Motorcycle racer Kyle Ryde has been in action again on his fifth consecutive weekend.

Kyle & his Father Sean flew to the beautiful Tuscany circuit of Mugello near Florence on Thursday; this was for the 9^th round of the Moto GP Redbull Rookies Cup.

As of the previous two rounds, qualifying was a nightmare for youngster Ryde, again the rain fell during the qualifying session and he failed to achieve a good qualifying position. This was very disappointing for both Kyle and his Father Sean, as during the dry free practise sessions Kyle did put in some quick lap times, which had they have been during the qualifier, they would have put him a lot further up the pack rather than his lowly 23^rd place on the grid.

The heavy thunderstorms continued into the rookie’s race day on the Saturday and Kyle’s race was declared a wet race. However, the sun came out and a dry line appeared around the Tuscany circuit, so with 24 bikes all fitted with wet tyres, this was going to be a case of watching for tyre degradation and all about who could preserve their tyres the most!

The Red lights went out and as the pack charged up the first of many of the hills on this fast sweeping circuit, Kyle settled in for a hard race to try and make some head way into the field of riders in front of him.

The race broke into packs of five riders or more, all having their own race, Kyle was in one of these packs for most of the race eventually having a final tussle with Joe Roberts (USA) Azmi Hafiq (Malta) Max Enderlein (Gemany) and Kevin Argino (Italy) he did get the better of Enderlein & Argino, coming across the finishing line in a hard fought 18^th place just behind Roberts & Hafiq.

Race winner was yet again 18yr old Australian Arthur Sissis, followed on to the podium by Thomas Vavrous (CZ) and in 3^rd place Aaron Espana  (Spa)

Kyle’s weekend didn’t finish in Tuscany though! No sooner had the race finished, Kyle and his Father were on the plane back home to race on Sunday at the BSB Meeting at Snetterton in the British 125cc Championship.

Kyle arrived at the Snetterton circuit in the early hours of Sunday morning, so not much sleep before the early morning warm-up, where he had to do a maximum of four laps in order to be able to qualify to join the race from the rear of the grid, a position that Kyle is only becoming to familiar with!

After achieving the required four laps and being the seventh quickest, he felt comfortable for the afternoon race on the beautifully prepared bike of team owner Ryan Saxelby.

The race came, red lights out and the battle commenced, By lap one Kyle was up from 30^th place on the grid to 18^th and slowly but surely he picked off the other riders. By lap 3 of this twelve lap race he was up to 11^th place, well past half the field.  However, a group of five riders at the front were really setting the pace and had managed to break away from the pursuing pack of riders, not a scenario that Kyle wanted to happen, as they would be hard to catch.

By lap six Kyle was in sixth position and this is where he was to stay for the rest of the race, as by this time the leading five riders had drawn out a ten second difference on Kyle from the fifth placed man and fifteen seconds from the race leader.

So Kyle was to come home in a good 6^th place from the rear of the grid, with the race win going to another youngster Wayne Ryan, followed by Guiver and Watson.

Kyle is now 23^rd in the Moto GP Redbull Rookies and is still 2^nd in the British Championship on 75 points, twenty points behind the Championship leader Rob Guiver.  Kyle is leading the ACU Academy Cup from Luke Hedger; this is a separate Championship for the younger riders within this 125cc Championship.

Kyle’s next race will be in two weeks time, again with the Moto GP RedBull Rookies at the Sachsenring near Dresden in Germany.

Ryde takes the High Road to Scotland

Young motorcycle racer Kyle Ryde was competing at the 5^th round of the British Superbikes 125cc British   Championship race at the Knockhill Circuit in Fife, Scotland at the weekend.

The 13year old was looking to improve on his poor results of his last two race outings that he has taken part in; these being the 4^th round of the British Championship at Thruxton a couple of weeks ago, where he was in a very commanding 3^rd when he crashed out.  Then last weekend Kyle was with the Moto GP RedBull Rookie squad at the Grand Prix at Silverstone; here Kyle was suffering with poor machine set-up and was close to the back of the field throughout the two races.

So Kyle went to Knockhill with a mountain to climb in confidence, as set backs like the ones he has experienced in the last two races, can have a profound effect on a competitors confidence in both themselves and their team members.

Friday’s free practise was a wet session as was the qualifying sessions on Saturday. These two qualifiers saw Kyle 22^nd & 16^th respectively, which put him in 17^th on the grid for the Sunday race, not a position that Kyle has been used to this season!

Sunday’s race day saw a slight improvement in the weather conditions, which hopefully would improve young Ryde’s position during today’s race, Kyle shown this; as he was 9^th fastest in the morning warm-up session, so things were already starting to look and feel better in time for the race later.

12.45pm and the green light was given for the sighting lap, they reformed on the grid and as the red light went out Kyle went straight into race mode all guns blazing! 22 laps of shear adrenalin.  On lap one Ryde was up two places to 15^th place, there were a few fallers in the first lap and leading rider Irishman Reid was under steward’s investigation for a start line incident. However Kyle was slowly picking away and again by lap two he was in 12^th place and by lap three he was in 10^th place, this was seeing him going in the right direction up towards the front of the pack!

At the end of lap 5 of this twenty two-lap race Kyle was now up to a very strong seventh position, but due to yet another faller, the race was red flagged and Kyle returned to the pits in order for a re-start once the incident out on the circuit had been sorted.

With all the riders back out on the grid for the re-start, Kyle was now in a better position to challenge for the lead. As once the race was stopped, they reform the grid with the positions in which they were once the race was stopped, which meant Kyle was now on the second row of the grid in 7^th place, ideal place for a challenge.

Kyle got a good start and by the end of lap one he was into fifth position and by lap two he was fighting for third place and a podium! Again the Irish Road race Champion Reid was in front with Kyle battling it out for second place with the Championship leader Rob Guiver,

Guiver made a mistake and went down, however he did manage to re-mount the machine, by which time he was a lap down on Reid and Ryde and for a time he did hold on to the leading pair in order to un-lap himself.

Kyle kept the pressure on Reid and on lap thirteen of what was going to be an epic battle to the chequered flag, Reid’s chain snapped!

So with the contest over Kyle Ryde the 13year old motorcycle impresario took his first ever win of a British Championship Race, also setting the fastest lap in the race of a 55.162 sec, which equates to 82.96 mph.

He now joins the likes of Casey Stoner, Leon Haslam and Chas Davies of becoming; or possibly being; the youngest rider ever to win a British 125cc Championship road race, at the grand age of 13yrs and 332 days old!

Kyle is now second in the British Championship and First in the ACU Academy Cup, which is run for the younger riders taking part.

Kyle’s racing mentor (Father) Sean, could not have wished for a finer present on Fathers Day!

Kyle’s race schedule is a hectic one and he is back racing at Assen in the Netherlands next weekend, with the Moto GP RedBull Rookies at the Dutch Moto Grand Prix.

(Please note: Photograph Kindly supplied by Steve Gough)

Disastrous Debut Grand Prix for Ryde

Venue Silverstone UK, Rider Kyle Ryde, race; Moto GP RedBull Rookies, this was Kyle’s debut at his home Moto GP and it started with a nightmare of a qualifying day on Friday!

The first free practise session, saw Kyle eventually settle into a rhythm and the morning laps saw him in a strong 10^th position. However for the afternoon qualifying sessions, it was decided to change the suspension settings but this put Kyle well off the pace for the first qualifier.  It really unsettled Kyle so much, that during the session he returned to the pit lane and spoke to the mechanic about the bikes movements, at this point he was some 6 seconds off the leaders time! The suspension was re-set the for the second qualifying race 1 hour later, this was much better and he was over 4 seconds a lap quicker, nearly back up to the morning times. However with the poor times in the earlier session, Kyle was in a lowly position of 24^th for Saturdays first race of the weekend, not what the Team 77 anticipated after such good showings in the earlier rounds.

Saturdays race was declared a wet race and Kyle normally would enjoy the wet conditions. However still suffering from poor suspension settings, Kyle remained at the rear of the field all of the first race and by the time of the chequered he was actually a lap behind. Not the ideal position that some one of Kyle’s abilities is used to, but sometimes not everything works out right in these high profile races.

Things just seemed to go from bad to worse for poor Kyle, as Sundays race didn’t see any improvement what so ever, but to come from the back of the grid at this level of racing, was always going to be a tough call, especially if the bike isn’t working in your favour, so with a combination of poor weather conditions and the bike set-up, Kyle was again in last position in the race.

This was possibly the worst race event Kyle has ever experienced in his years of racing at club level & more recently National & International level.  However this is all the part of the learning curve of a future champion and he will pick himself up and learn from this experience.  So bring on the British Championship race at the British Superbike meeting at Knockhill in Scotland and watch this space.

Read all about Kyle’s first year on the Tour…download here (PDF 3.2mb)