Rich Energy announces split from BSB team OMG Racing

Rich Energy has announced it will be splitting from OMG Racing with immediate effect. 

Rich Energy has been the title sponsor of OMG Racing since 2020, and this year the team is enjoying its most successful British Superbikes season to date.

Both Kyle Ryde and Bradley Ray have won races in 2022, with Ray leading the championship after four rounds, and ahead of the first of his home races at Brands Hatch this upcoming weekend. 

However, an announcement published on social media from Rich Energy reads: 

“Rich Energy would like to thank OMG Racing for their work in the last 2 years but the whole agreement is now at an end. Rich Energy is expanding its portfolio in many spheres including sport.”

The announcement came just hours after OMG Racing’s most recent racing appearance, at the World Superbike Championship race in Donington Park, where the team’s British Junior Supersport rider, Lissy Whitmore, qualified 30th, and finished 23rd and 25th in the two Junior Supersport races.

Of course, its split with OMG Racing is not Rich Energy’s only controversial separation, after the downfall of its high-profile relationship with the Haas F1 team in 2018. William Storey, the CEO of Rich Energy, has become something of a controversial figure among F1 fans after the situation with Haas.

Storey tweeted about the split with OMG, saying: “A good team that I hope continue their success. The two BSB riders Kyle Ryde & Brad Ray are exceptional & I think Brad can win the title. I wish them the best of luck in the future.”

It is certainly a curiosity that if Storey thinks the team can win the championship with one of its riders, why is the company pulling sponsorship from the team before that title is won?

For OMG Racing, the split leaves the team without a title sponsor at the time of writing. With over half of the British Superbike Championship still remaining, that is likely something that will need to be resolved. A failure to acquire a new sponsor could leave the title hopes of Bradley Ray to evaporation.

Rich Energy is also a sponsor of the British Touring Car Championship team BTC Racing. Additionally, the Rich Energy and Haas F1 saga is set to be covered in detail in an investigative book which will be published later this year, written by American journalists Elizabeth Blackstock and Alanis King, which is available for pre-order here.

Racing action images courtesy of Ian Hopgood Photography.