Rizla Suzuki’s Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne took hard-earned fourth and fifth place finishes in today’s double-header ninth round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at a sun-drenched Oulton Park in Cheshire. Shakey found it difficult to make the most of his fifth place grid position from the start in both races before fighting his way through to dice for the podium places. His early efforts to pass slower riders left him with just too much of a deficit to make up and while matching the leaders’ lap times he couldn’t catch them.
Steve Plater, standing in for the injured James Haydon, outperformed his qualifying position of 16th to take two well deserved 11th places. He continued to gain confidence in his Rizla Suzuki through the course of the weekend as he tripled his Championship points total. Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari won both races.
There is now a mini-break in the Championship before the action resumes at the 10th round at Croft in North Yorkshire on Sunday, August 13th.
Shakey:“I couldn’t believe the two starts I got. Normally I get off the line really well but it just didn’t happen today. After that I was maxed out trying to catch the riders in front.
“In the second race I was going for fourth and was braking that hard I nearly fell off the bike. I recovered and stayed on and it shows just how hard I was trying. I’ll be keeping that effort going for the rest of the year and am looking forward to the next round already.”
Steve:“As the weekend progressed I learnt more about the Rizla Suzuki and started to gel with it. It’s a fantastic race bike and I’ve really enjoyed riding it.
“I was a little tired during the races and that is down to being race rusty after seven weeks off the bike recovering from injury. It’s three weeks before the next round and if James isn’t able to race and I get a chance to ride again for Rizla Suzuki, then I will be both fitter and wiser.”
Robert Wicks, Team Manager: “The pace at the front has been of an extremely high standard all weekend. With the knowledge we had from our last outing at Oulton Park and the progress made at Knockhill a week ago, we had high hopes for the weekend.
“We expected more from Shane but despite improving his lap times and racing hard the competition was too fierce and he came away with the best he could achieve on the day. That said, he’s the sort of rider that will rise to the challenge and we can expect him to be more determined that ever at Croft in three weeks time.
“Steve put in a decent performance at a very fast and competitive race meeting. He kept on improving, rode wisely and given his lack of time on the Rizla Suzuki, acquitted himself well. Our thanks go to Steve for standing in at short notice for the team. We will review James Haydon’s fitness level and make a decision on who will be the team’s second rider at Croft shortly.”
Race One Results: 1: Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda) 27:16.848,
2: Leon Haslam (Ducati) +4.673,
3: Gregorio Lavilla (Ducati) +5.805,
4: Shane Byrne (Rizla Suzuki) +11.573,
5: Jonathan Rea (Honda) +12.536,
6: Michael Rutter (Honda) +22.649,
7: Michael Laverty (Honda) +23.180,
8: Scott Smart (Suzuki) +30.844,
9: Bully McConnell (Yamaha) +33.927,
10: Craig Coxhell (Kawasaki) +34.099,
11: Steve Plater (Rizla Suzuki) +45.903.
Race Two Results: 1: Kiyonari 27:14.948,
2: Karl Harris (Honda) +2.786,
3: Haslam +5.766,
4: Rea +9.633,
5: Shane Byrne (Rizla Suzuki) +12.383,
6: Tommy Hill (Yamaha) +20.953,
7: Rutter +33.139,
8: Glen Richards (Honda) +42.029,
9: Ben Wilson (Suzuki) +42.271,
10: Gary Mason (Honda) +42.369,
11: Steve Plater (Rizla Suzuki) +42.381.
Championship Positions after nine of 13 rounds: 1: Kiyonari 274,
2: Haslam 269,
3: Lavilla 260,
4: Shane Byrne (Rizla Suzuki) 174,
5: Rea 153,
6: Harris 149,
7: Laverty 127,
8= Rutter, Hill 118,
10: Smart 82,
16: James Haydon (Rizla Suzuki) 36,
21: Steve Plater (Rizla Suzuki) 15.
Related Linkswww.rizla-suzuki.co.uk
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