Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport rider Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne overcame a high speed crash during qualifying to record his best two results of the season with a pair of second places at round six of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship held at Mondello Park today. Riding the VK and Vent Axia backed machine Byrne led both races and was looking good for a victory as the races were held in dry conditions after two days of heavy rain but the Dunlop-shod rider repelled the main championship protagonists as he battled it out at the front.
The opening race saw Byrne cross the line just 0.158 seconds behind race winner Leon Haslam and in race two he had to give second best to fellow Honda rider Jonathan Rea, but the 40 points has got his outside hopes of the championship back on course.
Meanwhile it wasn’t such a good weekend for team mate Tom Sykes as the young Yorkshireman struggled during the wet qualifying session but still managed to post a second row start.
Race one proved disastrous for the 21 year old when a technical problem ruled him out in the early stages but he battled back in the second outing to end up in seventh and to add to his impressive points scoring for this season already.
As a result Byrne now moves into sixth place in the Championship with Sykes in seventh going into the next round at Knockhill, Fife in two weeks time.
Shane Byrne: “It’s been our best weekend so far with two second places and I really thought we had a good strong setting for race two. I think Leon made a move on Jonathan Rea and I managed to cheekily nip past both of them and I was smiling to myself. I was going much faster than in the first race but then Rea passed me and to be fair I didn’t really have an answer for him. We should be happy, but we deserve a win soon.”
Tom Sykes: “I got a good start in the second race but I got boxed in at the first turn and just got messed up. I was well back at the end of the first lap and I just started picking some places up again when the safety car came out. I had another moment when I had to stand the bike up when I had nowhere to go and lost some more places but I managed to bring it home in seventh. It was just a shame I had a problem in the first race as that meant we didn’t do enough laps to collect any data to improve the bike for the second race. I just want to move on now and continue improving and scoring more points.”
Phil Borley (Crew Chief):
“I think overall we’ve had a good day, with two second places from Shakey and after yesterday we would have probably been happy with that but I think Shakey is a little bit disappointed not to get a win. We were unfortunate to have a technical problem with Tom’s bike in the first race but he rode well in the second one, although he maybe could have gone better if he’d got the first race under his belt.”
Race 1 Result:1, Leon Haslam (Ducati) 30m02.146s,
2, Shane Byrne (Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda) +0.158s,
3, Gregorio Lavilla (Ducati) +3.491s,
4, Jonathan Rea (Honda) +9.793s,
5, Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) +14.786s,
6, Karl Harris (Honda) +18.354s,
7, Leon Camier (Honda) +18.443s,
8, Cal Crutchlow (Suzuki) +18.685s,
9, Chris Walker (Suzuki) +25.572s,
10, Tommy Hill (Yamaha) +44.003s.
Race 2 Result:1, Jonathan Rea (Honda) 30m14.164s,
2, Shane Bynre (Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda) +2.344s,
3, Gregorio Lavilla (Ducati) +2.460s,
4, Leon Haslam (Ducati) +3.231s,
5, Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) +8.121s,
6, Leon Camier (Honda) +13.898s,
7, Tom Sykes (Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda) +14.354s,
8, Karl Harris (Honda) +21.447s,
9, Tommy Hill (Yamaha) +23.490s,
10, Scott Smart (Kawasaki) +38.995s.
Bennetts British Superbike Championship Positions after Round 6:1, Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) 212pts
2, Gregorio Lavilla (Ducati) 211pts
3, Jonathan Rea (Honda) 187pts
4, Leon Haslam (Ducati) 169pts
5, Leon Camier (Honda) 136pts
6, Shane Byrne (Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda) 127pts
7, Tom Sykes (Stobart Vent Axia Motorsport Honda) 115pts
8, Chris Walker (Suzuki) 83pts
=, Tommy Hill (Yamaha) 83pts
10, Karl Harris (Honda) 65pts
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