Ryuichi Kiyonari beat off a hard-fought challenge from Shane Byrne to win the opening race of the fifth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. However he couldn’t repeat the feat in the second wet race as Australian Josh Waters powered to his debut victory in the series.
Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Byrne had led at the start, but was under pressure from James Ellison and Kiyonari. The Japanese rider snatched the lead with three laps remaining to take the victory by 0.103s aboard his Buildbase BMW.
Kiyonari said: “In practice I was not as fast, but the team changed things on the bike and got it working well. That is why I can I can hardly believe we won, it is down to my team and I am very happy.”
Ellison took third ahead of his Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki team-mate Chris Walker with Dan Linfoot enjoying his best result of the season on the Quattro Plant Kawasaki in fifth place ahead of Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes.
Byrne was eager to make amends in race two, charging his Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki into the lead but the race was stopped after three laps by a spectacular crash by Ellison. Ellison’s bike cart-wheeled across the track and Byrne was clipped by the flying machine. Byrne said: “It was a bit of worry when I saw it. James went onto the grass and his bike came around and hit me and that squeezed my fingers against the lever.”
The re-start lasted only four laps before it was halted by rainfall. The race restarted in wet conditions and Waters took charge on the Tyco Suzuki to take his maiden win in the series. Waters said: “This is awesome and not something I was expecting after the weekend I have had, but it was pretty cool when I got the lead. Then with five laps to go I was concentrating on keeping the gap.”
Waters took the win by almost five seconds from Anvil Hire TAG Kawasaki’s Richard Cooper and Keith Farmer on the PR Racing Kawasaki, who also scored their first podium finish in the championship. Tommy Bridewell ran fourth on the Milwaukee Yamaha with Byrne finishing in fifth.
Some consolation for Byrne was being crowned the “Monster Energy King of Brands”, with the results across the two races combined to decide the victor. Byrne also increased his lead in the standings to 92 points over Josh Brookes who struggled to eighth, whilst race one winner Kiyonari was forced out of the second race by a technical problem.
Results
Race one:
1: Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW
2: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.103s
3: James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +0.687s
4: Chris Walker (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +3.290s
5: Dan Linfoot (Quattro Plant Kawasaki) +4.378s
6: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) +5.160s
Race two:
1: Josh Waters (Tyco Suzuki)
2: Richard Cooper (Anvil Hire TAG Kawasaki) +4.627s
3: Keith Farmer (PR Racing) +6.082s
4: Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +7.253s
5: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +8.247s
6: Jon Kirkham (Halsall Biker Gear Kawasaki) +14.094s
Championship standings:
1: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) 221
2: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) 129
3: James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) 124
4: Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) 107
5: Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) 101
6: Chris Walker (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) 96
