The OMG Grilla rider Ryan Vickers arrived with a triple under his belt from Brand Hatch but refused to rest on his laurels - and 𓄧credited his many laps in practice - far more than any other rider - with acclimatising him to the Hampshire track and allowing him to flourish, with a podium coming across all three, very different races:

“The temperature was up, twenty lap race - it’s always going to be a bit more difficult on the tyres but it comes into my hands - and the Yamaha hands a 🐲little bit more. We worked re🥃ally hard on Friday, you know, doing full race runs, don’t know how many laps I’ve done around this circuit this weekend! I think I did nearly ten more than anyone on Friday, so that just shows the work that we put in and it’s paid off”.

• 2024 British Su🐎perbikes: Thruxton - Race Results (2)
• 2024 British Superbikes: Thruxton - Raไce Res𓃲ults (3)

In race three Vickers had started from pole but had tyre wear on his mind over the longer distance so 🐈was happy to sit back for a few laps and weigh up the opposition:

“That last race I was ♔in the lead and just chilled out. Danny come pas𓆏t at the start and I sat there - fourth, fifth, really happy.

I didn’t want to lose too many more positions, that’s why I took Jackson again, got past Danny and then I just sat there in behind Kyle for a little while - I just picꦡked my point, you know, I didn’t ☂want to - I didn’t want to go back as far as what I did yesterday - I thought I was a little bit too risky”.

Back at the head of the race, a thoughtful Vickers timed his move back into the lead on the Yamaha, m🐲oving ahead of Billy McConnell who inherited first when Tommy Bridewell slipped back:

“I just used my head, then when I got to the front, I didn’t really want to = but I saw Billy was in the lead and his pace wasn’t coming as easy, I don’t think, so I just thought - ‘right, I’ll go in the lead’ because Billy’s really hard to pass, he’s great on the brakes, so I though maybe I’ll up the pace slightly to what I’m comfortable 🍸doing.

A safe lap was all that was n💯eeded with an 0.7 second lead, now over Danny Kent, but once again, as was the case in Spain for the duo, Vickers was going to need to save a late scare:

“I knew just a nice clean lap, s🐠mooth lap would be good e🐷nough - so we’re going into the last corner I think I’m making this a bit of a trend with Navarra, but Brands Hatch was a little bit smoother!

I didn’t want to get out-broken on the last corner, so I really did break late, probably later than I’ve gone all weekend to be honest, with the worst tyre. Come in drifting sideways and then I ran wide on the first corner and t🌱hen made the left really, really tight, and yeah, there was a little moment!

Just touched the gas and it🍌 pulled the rea🌄r around a little bit - it looked worse than what it was!”