Shane Byrne heads the Bennetts British Superbike Championship going into the sixth round at Mallory Park this weekend but the Airwaves Ducati rider is expecting his rivals to begin their fight-back in the title stakes at the short, but demanding Leicestershire circuit. The Spanish based rider has won seven of the ten races held so far, opening up a commanding 83 points advantage ahead of his team-mate Leon Camier, and he goes into these races in confident mood, having won one of the two races in the corresponding round of last year. Byrne then was riding for Honda, and the winner of the other race last term, Ryuichi Kiyonari, was also aboard a Fireblade and it is those two results that give the pursuing pack the belief that they can start claw back the points.
Rizla Suzuki’s Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne took two inspirational and determined top 10 finishes after starting well down the grid in both of today’s races at the third round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Thruxton. In morning warm-up Shakey missed the chequered flag and was penalised for riding too fast on a red flag lap by being moved back eight places from ninth to 17th on the grid. He gritted his teeth and fought his way through to fourth before eventually ending up fifth after a race-long battle with Honda’s Jonathan Rea.