23.10.12
Season ends for Ryde
Nottinghamshire rider Kyle Ryde’s 2012 Motorcycle Road racing season has finally ended. The Jacksdale youngster has finished this year's two main Championships the Moto GP Redbull Rookies and the BSB Motostar Championship, finishing in 15th and 6th respectively.
It’s been a difficult year for Kyle and his Father Sean. Who have been developing a new Moto 3 bike for the British BSB Motostar Championship. The Moto 3 machine is a single cylinder 250cc machine and is completely different to the 125cc two-stroke machines, of which Kyle had previously raced in this series. So having to contend with an all new approach to racing this machine, as well as finding out all the new settings, has been a huge learning curve for this father & son race team.
Kyle had some glory on this new bike, winning the first time out on it at the Snetterton circuit in Norfolk, then again at the Scottish round at Knockhill in Fife. Kyle also had an excellent race at the Dutch circuit of Assen in the BSB round there, in which he had an outstanding battle with the local riders who were wild card entries for the meeting. Kyle came out tops of the British riders in this race, wininng the English leg of the meeting.
Not content with just trying to get used to this new machine, Kyle & Sean have also been assisting electronics company ‘Motec’ to develop a new ignition system for the new Moto 3 machines. But it’s not all gone to plan at these Motostar meetings, DNF’s were encountered and the most costly one was at the Donington round, when Kyle’s bike broke a valve spring, causing several thousands of pounds worth of damage. Developing these systems takes up a lot of track time which Kyle has sacrificed so that in future races this system may decide a race win or not!
Earlier in the year Kyle felt good on the KTM machine and he was on the podium for the British round at Silverstone, with a good 3rd place. However this didn’t last long, as by the next round Kyle was starting to go backwards and his results just went from bad to worse. He couldn’t get the response that he would have liked out of the Redbull team and his confidence was being knocked down at virtually every meeting, he knew that given the right machine, he could run at the front of this race series. But it wasn’t to be, so by the last meeting of which Kyle wasn’t even looking forward to, they decided to put this Championship down to part of his learning curve, albeit a poor part of it and at some part in Kyle’s future career, he may just recall some of his time in the Redbull Rookies.
Kyle’s future is uncertain, as both himself and his father Sean don’t know what the 2013 season will bring. They would like to be able to race in the Spanish Championship next year, but the cost of racing there would be just to much to raise, so this only leaves the British Championship again and with Kyle already having won that last season, they are not sure that this is the best alternative for any future development in Kyle’s career.
Kyle and his family would like to say a big thank you to all the people who have helped the team during 2012. The sponsors far too many to mention (but you all know who you are) have played a huge part in Kyle’s development and he personally would like to thank you all for that.
With Kyle’s 2013 season undecided, keep a look out for Fundraisers locally over the winter months, because these will be happening in order to continue to help this young Champion develop into a World Champion.
Post Edited from a press release prepared by John Holmes
Ian Wakefield from Sport Nottinghamshire said "Kyle is obviously a talented and dediicated individual but as we all know in a sport like Motorcycling without financial backing or sponsorship things could become very difficult. We'd like to encourage any potential sponsors to get in touch and we'd be happy to forward your details. We'd also like to wish Kyle the best of luck for the 2013 season"
