12.09.12
Kyle Rydes ride ends prematurely
Young reigning 125cc Motorcycle Champion Kyle Ryde who lives in Jacksdale and attends Selston High School is suffering the spate of ‘bad luck’ that seems to have been following him for most of this season’s racing.
Kyle was at his home circuit of Donington Park at the weekend in round 9 of the British Motostar Championship cup, a support series to the British Superbikes.
Kyle’s weekend got off to a good start with the free practice sessions on the Friday, and was 2nd & 3rd in these two outings, just being pipped to the flag by his old team mate from a few seasons back, Bradley Ray.
Saturday was the main qualifying day and Kyle was feeling very positive and certainly during the two qualifying sessions he showed that he was the pace setter. The first session saw him put a 0.128 buffer between him and Bradley Ray, whilst in the second session during the afternoon, he was looking strong for pole, when again he was taken during the last few laps by both Bradley Ray and Jordan Weaving, who towards the end slip streamed Kyle in order to get the tow that he required to better Kyle’s lap time!
Kyle was 3rd on the grid for the Sunday afternoon race, this was a front row slot and both Kyle & his Father Sean, were pleased with that, as he would still be able to achieve a good start from this position and was looking to monopolise on this.
Sunday morning’s warm-up was a taste of things to come! as Kyle was going fastest in this 10 minute warm-up session, but then on the last few minutes of the warm-up, he entered the pit-lane to the surprise of the team and his Father, with a rather loud noise as the rear end of his exhaust was hanging off! Kyle finished 9th in the warm session due to this malfunction and now had a machine to repair.
A visiting young Australian rider called ‘Ollie Simpson’ was parked next to Kyle’s team in the paddock and he had two of the same machines as Kyle, so young ‘Ollie’s’ Father kindly offered Sean & Kyle an exhaust from their spare machine, the team were very grateful of this gesture as this meant they didn’t have to work flat-out to try and repair the broken exhaust.
The afternoon race was delayed by ½ an hour and then reduced to a ten- lap sprint! This was mainly due to an earlier race incident, which left oil on the track. As the lights turned to red, Kyle took his time to settle into the race pace and by the second lap he was up into fourth position, but all of a sudden entering the Melbourne loop, the engine tune changed and the machine almost launched Kyle into the air. Kyle realising it was something serious and perhaps terminal, pulled the clutch in and coasted to a stop. He managed to push the bike back to the pitlane entrance, where his race for the weekend had ended.
On further inspection his Father Sean confirmed that the engine had seized and now it’s another race against time in order to have the engine rebuilt for round 10 at the Assen race circuit in Holland on the weekend of the 21st/22nd / 23rd of Sept. Meanwhile Kyle is back in action with the Moto GP Redbull Rookies this coming weekend at the lovely San Marino circuit of Misano. Let’s just all hope that this youngsters luck changes and gives him the credit to which he so rightly deserves.
Best of luck in Holland Kyle (All at Sport Nottinghamshire)
