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Ryan Vickers
This is a more in-depth detail about Ryan in his own words.
My Story
So, this is where it all began. My dad, Paul Vickers, had always been a Motorcycle fanatic, having ridden bikes all his life with an exceptional talent himself, finishing 3rd in the World Wheelie Competition. I am the Youngest of my two siblings, and I had an instant connection to Motorcycles from a very young age; it was all I seemed to want to do. This bike was my first-ever motorbike, which was initially for my older brother. As he grew out of it, I was just about able to get on it, and I first rode this Italjet 50cc at the age of 3.5 years old. For years, I went between this motorbike and my push bike, constantly learning new things. I remember first standing on the seat while riding, doing stoppies, wheelies and building jumps.
Fast-forwarding 3 years, I had been riding bikes constantly, but just on local greens. I went from the Italjet 50cc to a PW50 and then finally got a KTM 50cc. We didn’t have any idea how to race or even how to get into it, and it was only until we went to a practice track at a local track called Besthorpe MX, where we got approached by a guy named Neil Wigger, who was impressed with my riding and said, “Do you race?” We said no and had never really thought about it. He then told us how to do it and put us in contact with the Norfolk and Suffolk Motocross Club. This is where we decided we were going to try to go racing, but with no money of our own, we had to reach out to local companies, and we were fortunate enough to be able to get enough money together to get bikes and go racing.
We entered our first race at the age of 7 years old with the Norfolk and Suffolk Club at Great Hockham which was only 15 minutes from our house. We had no idea what to expect, but I managed to get 3rd place in Race 1, 2nd place in Race 2 and 1st place in Race 3, which gave me the Overall win that weekend. This was an unbelievable achievement and still sticks with me to this day. To have won my first ever race meeting was amazing and completely unexpected, and I guess this is really what set my whole racing career off.
In that first year of racing, I became the Norfolk and Suffolk Champion and also the Norwich and District Champion. During the year, we transitioned to an American Manufacturer called Cobra, where we met Neil Mclellend (Cobra Neil), who was the primary contact for Cobra UK distribution. Over the next 3 years, I continued racing in the same clubs and managed to win 8x Youth MX Championships. I progressed up to the 65cc class in 2008, still on board the Cobra.​
In 2009, we made the switch from Club racing to British Championship racing, where I raced in the RedBull Pro Nationals Championship. I was at this point riding for Cobra UK, and our first year was very tough as our bike was not very competitive at the time, but it was all good experience, learning a lot of new tracks and getting used to riding at a higher level. In 2010, Cobra brought out a new bike which seemed to be a big step, and we were able to be very competitive. So with a year under our belts, we had a fantastic year and it still stands out to me as one of the best years of my life. We battled for the Championship all year with Keenan Hird and Taylor Hammal. I won many races, and even when I didn't, we were on the podium nearly every time.I had one DNF at Foxhills due to a puncture that caused a crash, and I wasn’t able to rejoin, which cost me the chance to win the title. I ended up 2nd in the Championship, which was the biggest Youth Championship.
After our success in 2010, we really struggled to make that next step in Motocross due to funding and I also had a couple of injuries that put me out for quite a long period of time. In this period, one of my Sponsors, Jamie Hitter, ex-road racer himself, suggested that I give tarmac racing a go when I turned 12 years old, and he would set up a team for me to start racing in. This wasn’t something that I jumped at, as I wasn’t hugely interested as a kid, coming from Motocross. I was brought up with the excitement of Jumps, etc., and I thought Road Racing looked boring because it was flat. With the influence of my Dad and Jamie, we agreed I would give it a go, and I went to Mallory Park in 2011, just after I turned 12 years old, to do my ACU License. This was my first day on tarmac on an Aprilia RS125 and funnily enough I loved it… I think with my motocross experience I adapted very fast and it wasn’t long before I got my knee down and then I was hooked.
After completing my ACU License, Jamie stuck to his word and set up a team for us to race in, competing at Thundersport GB in the Aprilia Superteens. I managed to do six rounds of the Championship in 2011, getting on the podium multiple times, and one being at the World Superbikes round we competed at Donington Park. Unfortunately, we had a few crashes, and we could not continue due to financial reasons, which was a shame for all of us, as we had such a promising start and showed much potential, and I was enjoying the road racing. For everyone, this was tough and left us really thinking what's next.
Thanks to my past motocross sponsors, I managed to get another bike to practice on. While practising again, we were approached by some guys who were impressed with my riding and wanted to help me get back racing in Motocross.
After meeting the new sponsor, he got me a new bike and covered most of the costs to get back into racing. I had a KTM 85cc Big Wheel, and in 2013, we entered the Red Bull Pro Nationals, which was the highest level of racing in the UK at that time. I had a great season, achieving many top results, with my best being 4th place, which was impressive given the time I’d been off racing. Throughout this season and our remarkable progress, we got approached by a team called MXWORLD Honda to compete in the Arenacross Championship and also the MX Nationals the following season.
Arenacross wasn’t something I had done before, and it is one of the toughest events to do. We had a great start and were battling at the front. Often, my best result was 4th until I had an injury, which unfortunately put me out of the rest of the series at the round in Newcastle. Due to this injury, I was out for a long period of time, as there was ligament damage, which takes a long time to heal.
Dirt to Tarmac...
After the Motocross Knee Injury, I was out for the remainder of 2014 and most of 2015. As I was recovering, I decided to see a friend racing at Snetterton, Jack Scott. When I was at Snetterton, I met a guy called Chris Satchwell who was at the time helping Jack out. Chris said to me, "Would I like to have a go on a Honda CB500 and race it?". I jumped at the opportunity, and we quickly progressed. I managed to get out on the bike later in the year, competing in the final two rounds at Thundersport GB in the Thundersport 500 Class. This class was the cheapest to get into road racing. The Honda CB500 is essentially a Pizza delivery bike you’d see in London, minus the fairings and straight handlebars. In those Final two rounds of the series, I showed promise and progression that gave us much motivation to try to do the full season in 2016.
2016 was a fantastic year. We started in the top 10 positions and progressed every time, eventually battling for the podiums and race wins in every race. I took everyone by surprise in only my first full year of Tarmac Racing. I fought for the Championship and only fell short by 5 points, bringing home 2nd position in the Championship. Many people at this point were telling me to do another year in this class before moving to the 600cc Class.
In 2017, we decided, along with Chris Satchwell, to move up into the British Superbike Championship and Compete in the Pirelli National Superstock 600 class. This was frowned upon by many people, as they didn’t think making such a big step this early in my career was a wise decision. We started the year off struggling a lot, and we found ourselves in a pretty complicated situation as things were not working out in Satchwell Racing. I wanted to continue racing in the British Championship as I had shown excellent progression in a short period. We did the first two rounds with Satchwell Racing, and then we decided it was best to part ways.
We were now in a complicated situation as we could not continue on our own, as it would be impossible to fund. I was fortunate to get together with my sponsors and had a huge help from my Nan and Grandad, who supported us to get our Bikes and Equipment to set up our Team and continue. In that time, we managed to buy Bikes, convert them, and acquire everything needed to run a race team. We then turned up to Round 3 under Team Vickers. In our first-ever round, running our own package, we managed to get P5. This was unbelievable in every way, and it really boosted my confidence while also putting my name out there.
From that first Top 5 at Oulton Park, our season went from strength to strength. I continuously battled for Top 5 Positions at every Track we went to, of which most of them was new to me being in my First year. We had the most incredible end to the Season of which you could ever dream of and at the final 3 Rounds of the Championship I got my first Podium at Silverstone GP, then a 2nd at Oulton Park, then to top it off, I Won the Final Round at Brands Hatch in front of 58,000 people in my first year on a 600 at British Championship level and in only my 2nd full year of Racing.
2018 was the most incredible year; we went on to dominate the Superstock 600 Championship by winning 10/11 races in the Season. It was the perfect Season. We broke many Lap records, and I became the first Rider to win that many races in a Season of this Championship. We had built such a fantastic Team of people, Sponsors and friends that this really wouldn’t have happened without them. This is what took me to the next level.
