Despite failing to finish the second race of the day, Airwaves Ducati rider Shane Byrne extended his lead in the British Superbike Championship today to 110 points after achieving a 2nd place finish in race one. Leon Camier finished 5th and 8th to secure valuable championship points.
Race one was declared wet although rain stopped falling as the riders took off for their sighting lap. Both Airwaves Ducati riders initially got away well from the line, but Shane was to lose a couple of places by the first corner, slotting into 5th with Leon behind him in 6th. Shane pushed hard to get himself up to 2nd however, any further progress was to be hampered by a number of back markers. Leon managed to successfully withstand pressure from Michael Laverty on the Suzuki to cross the line in 5th.
A wet second race saw Shane quickly take to the front of the field and start to build a gap. Lying in 6th, Leon was catching the rider in front of him when the race was red flagged and stopped. At the restart Shane once again took the lead. Leon, struggling for grip on a fast drying track, dropped back a couple of places to 8th. A combination of fast laps and quick, successive passes on back markers saw Shane pull away slightly from those behind him until lap 14 when he crashed heavily at turn one. Shane's crash brought the race to an end and as two thirds race distance had been completed the race result was declared.
Following his fall, Shane was taken to the circuit medical centre for a full check.
On race two, Shane said:"I got a really good start and knew that I needed to get away as early as possible. I was feeling really comfortable on the Airwaves Ducati but saw from my pit board that the gap to the guys behind was up and down all the time. I came into turn one and as soon as I touched the brake I was down. It was a really strange crash because everything felt normal right up until that point. I'm feeling sore but I'll be back training in a couple of days preparing for Cadwell Park."
After a difficult day, Leon commented:"At the start of race one the conditions were tricky so I started off pretty steady to avoid making any mistakes. Once I felt more comfortable on the Airwaves Ducati, the lap times started coming down and I was actually quicker than the leaders over the final ten laps of the race. Unfortunately after losing so much time at the start I couldn't finish higher than 5th. I was feeling really confident going into the second race as I knew I had the pace to be fighting up the front but we made the wrong tyre choice for the re-started race and I just didn't have enough grip. It's been a tough weekend. A 5th and an 8th isn't what I had hoped for but at the end of the day we've secured some decent championship points and made up some ground on those ahead of me." ~
Race One Results: 1.Tom Sykes - Rizla Suzuki
2.Shane Byrne - Airwaves Ducati3.James Ellison - Hydrex Bike Animal Honda
4.Michael Rutter - North West 200 Ducati
5.Leon Camier - Airwaves Ducati
Race Two Results: 1.Leon Haslam - HM Plant Honda
2.Michael Rutter - North West 200 Ducati
3.Karl Harris - Team Yamaha
4.Tom Sykes - Rizla Suzuki
5.James Ellison - Hydrex Bike Animal Honda
6.Simon Andrews - Jentin Racing / Lloyds British
7.Cal Crutchlow - HM Plant Honda
8.Leon Camier - Airwaves Ducati
