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IN THE WIND P34 KIYONARI, WATERS SPLIT BSB WINS R yuichi Kiyonari beat off a hard-fought challenge from Shane Byrne to win the opening race of the fifth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Champi- onship on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit. But he couldn't repeat the feat in the second wet race as Aus- tralian Josh Waters powered to his debut victory in the series. Rapid Solicitors Kawa- saki's Byrne led at the start, but was under pressure from James Ellison and Ki- yonari. The Japanese rider snatched the lead with three laps remaining to take the victory by .103 of a second aboard his Buildbase BMW. "In practice I was not as fast, but the team changed things on the bike and got it working well," Kiyonari said. "That is why I can hardly believe we won, it is down to my team and I am very happy." Ellison took third ahead of his Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki teammate Chris Walker with Dan Linfoot enjoying his best result of the season on the Quattro Plant Kawasaki in fifth place ahead of Milwaukee Yamaha's Josh Brookes. Byrne was eager to make amends in race two, charging his Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki into the lead, but the race was stopped after three laps after a spectacular crash by Ellison. El- lison's bike cart-wheeled across the track and Byrne was clipped by the flying machine. "It was a bit of worry when I saw it," Byrne said. "James went onto the grass and his bike came around and hit me and that squeezed my fingers against the lever." The re-start lasted only four laps before it was halted by rainfall. The race restarted in wet conditions and Waters took charge on the Tyco Suzuki to take his maiden win in the se- ries. "This is awesome and not something I was expecting after the weekend I have had, but it was pretty cool when I got the lead," Waters said. "Then with five laps to go I was concentrat- ing on keeping the gap." Waters took the win by almost five seconds from Anvil Hire TAG Kawasaki's Richard Cooper and Keith Farmer on the PR Racing Kawasaki, who also scored their first podium finish in the cham- pionship. Tommy Bridewell ran fourth on the Milwaukee Yamaha with Byrne finishing fifth. Byrne also increased his lead in the standings to 92 points over Josh Brookes, who struggled to eighth, whilst race-one winner Ki- yonari was forced out of the sec- ond race by a technical problem. American John Hopkins was ninth and 10 th in the two races. Ryuichi Kiyonari (23) leads Shane Byrne (67) in race one of the British Superbike Series at Brands Hatch on Sunday. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF BRITISH SUPERBIKE SERIES