Ryuichi Kiyonari’s hopes of a fourth British Superbike Championship crown are over after he was ruled out of this weekend’s racing at Silverstone through injury. Kiyonari hurt his shoulder in training and will be replaced at Samsung Honda by Freddy Foray.
Foray has been racing in the German IDM Superbike series, currently lying seventh on the championship, but has never been to Silverstone before and is excited by the challenge.
“Of course, I want to wish Kiyo a quick recovery but I am grateful to Samsung Honda for this opportunity. I have not ridden at Silverstone before but I have done many laps on my MotoGP game on Playstation! I am excited to ride the Samsung Honda, which will be a little bit different to my IDM machine, but I am not so worried about the change in tyres. I think the difference between Dunlop and Pirelli tyres is not so big as a few years ago. Both are very good, so I am looking forward to this weekend.”
Foray will partner title challenger Alex Lowes at Samsung Honda and team manager Havier Beltran is hopeful that Foray can provide support to his younger teammate.
“The Samsung Honda team are very much looking forward to Silverstone and continuing the progress that we have been making in both the Superbike and Supersport classes. Alex arrives this weekend still very confident because his momentum has been growing over the past few rounds and that was always the aim; to end the main season strongly and carry that into the Showdown. Of course, we’re sorry that Kiyo won’t be with us this weekend, but we’re looking forward to working with Freddy and hoping he can support Alex. We did offer it to Jason but he declined as he feels he has unfinished business in Supersport and wanted to focus on achieving a race win before the end of the season.”