Shane “Shakey” Byrne became the most successful rider in the history of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship celebrating the title for a record fourth time at Brands Hatch.
The Rapid Solictors Kawasaki rider bounced back from a crash in Saturday’s opening race, which was won by Howie Mainwaring, with a double win in the final two races at the Kent circuit, taking his career victory tally to 61 in the series.
Byrne sealed the title in the first of the Sunday races, when his rival Ryuichi Kiyonari was forced to withdraw after fracturing his collarbone in a crash from his Buildbase BMW in the damp free practice session on Saturday.
Kiyonari had extensive treatment in an last ditch attempt to race, but was forced to withdraw. However Byrne had a far from easy time as he started from the third row of the grid, running tenth on the opening lap, before fighting to lead at half distance to take the win by two seconds from Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki’s James Ellison.
After his first race win, Byrne said: “I would have dearly loved for Kiyo to be out there with me and to try and fight with him over these three races. That said, I never made him fall down, you know I fell down yesterday and it could have gone either way. Guys were treating the first and second corners like they were the last lap of the race and sort of shoving and barging and I thought blimey, ‘let’s just try and get round the first lap’. I managed to bring the bike home and we won so I think it’s a fitting way to take the title with a double win and I’m absolutely over the moon.”
Byrne believed that he owed it to Kiyonari to complete the double and again he had a fight on his hands, especially in the early stages. “It was getting a bit crazy but I tried to lead with a strong pace. I really wanted to win as to me the only way of justifying the title was to complete the double. That gave me the extra drive to make the title so real.”
Ellison was again second with Tommy Bridewell taking third place, enough to give him third place in the overall standings ahead of his Milwaukee Yamaha team-mate Josh Brookes who finished fifth, adrift of Stuart Easton.
Results
Saturday race:
1: Howie Mainwaring (Quattro Plant Kawasaki)
2: Josh Waters (Tyco Suzuki) +0.047s
3: Jon Kirkham (Halsall Biker Gear Kawasaki) +2.390s
4: Dan Linfoot (Quattro Plant Kawasaki) +4.297s
5: Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +14.219s
6: Stuart Easton (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +20.018s
Race two:
1: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)
2: James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +1.904s
3: Howie Mainwaring (Quattro Plant Kawasaki) +2.095s
4: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) +2.253s
5: Stuart Easton (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +3.922s
6: Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +4.152s
Final race:
1: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)
2: James Ellison (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) +0.102s
3: Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.477s
4: Stuart Easton (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) +0.545s
5: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) +0.791s
6: Dan Linfoot (Quattro Plant Kawasaki) +0.996s
Final standings:
1: Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki) 682
2: Ryuichi Kiyonari (Buildbase BMW) 620
3: Tommy Bridewell (Milwaukee Yamaha) 587
4: Josh Brookes (Milwaukee Yamaha) 584
5: Dan Linfoot (Quattro Plant Kawasaki) 577
6: Chris Walker (Lloyds British GBmoto Racing Kawasaki) 525
