Ryuichi Kiyonari remains the most successful rider in terms of MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship race wins at Oulton Park and ahead of the return to Cheshire this Bank Holiday weekend (3/4/5 May) he is targeting a historic first podium finish for the Buildbase BMW team.

Kiyonari has scored ten race wins at Oulton Park during his career, which puts him narrowly ahead of Shane 'Shakey' Byrne and the late Steve Hislop who both hold seven victories and now the triple champion is determined to make a return to the podium. Kiyo made his debut with Buildbase BMW at Brands Hatch and quickly proved he is back this season with a front row qualifying position and equalled the team's best race result of fourth place in race two. However he firmly believes that with more time on the bike, he will be soon closing the gap to the riders ahead of him as he bids to return to his previous title-contending form.

Kiyonari said:

"Brands Hatch was unbelievable - especially my start in the first race! Practice and qualifying went well and I think I have adapted quickly to the new team and the Buildbase BMW. I hadn't ridden the BMW in the wet so I tried to just do some fast laps and build confidence in those conditions and we had a crash, but I was still on the front row which was really good. We still have some things to work on, but I think we had a good start with fourth place in race two and I just need to close the gap and then I can follow the others like Shakey and Josh (Brookes), then get in front of them!

"We need to try and match the other teams but we haven't done as much testing as some of the others so we know we can still improve and we will work hard again this weekend. I really like Oulton Park because I have good memories at the circuit in the past so I am looking forward to going back this weekend. For sure there are a few bad ones too but I have some good confidence now and we want to be getting closing to the other teams. I know it won't be easy but I want to be on the podium and now we have had a fourth place at Brands Hatch I want to be third, then second and then winning again. We made mistakes at Brands Hatch and were fourth so we need to improve this weekend and I think we can start looking for podiums - this year is a new Kiyo!"



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