IN
THE
WIND
P30
SHAKEY UNSHAKEABLE, RISPOLI PODIUMS
C
urrent British Superbike
Champion Shane Byrne
(PBM Kawasaki) showed just
who's the boss by taking a double
victory at round four of the 2015
BSB season at Snetterton to ex-
tend his championship lead to 27
points over Milwaukee Yamaha's
Josh Brookes, who went 2-2.
Third went to Honda Racing's
Jason O'Halloran, the Australian
grabbing his first ever podiums
in BSB by holding off Tyco BMW
teammates Tommy Bridewell in
race one and Michael Laverty in
race two.
Byrne was never troubled
after taking a dominant pole
position by over one second
from O'Halloran and promptly
ran away with both races to take
his BSB win tally to 64.
The weekend proved to be
another disaster for Byrne's
2014 title rival Ryuichi Kiyonari
(Buildbase BMW), the three-time
BSB Champion crashing out in
race one and finishing 19th in
race two for no points. It was
similarly a torrid weekend for
James Ellison (JG Speedfit Ka-
wasaki) as the one-time champi-
onship leader retired in race one
and took seventh in race two to
slip to 33 points off Byrne in the
title chase.
In the Supersport champion-
ship, American James Rispoli
finally grabbed his first podium
of the season for Team Trac-
tion Control Yamaha by clinch-
ing second in the
second race of the
weekend after Luke
Stapleford (Profile
Racing Triumph) left
his braking too late
and collided with
title rival Kyle Ryde
(PacedayZ Trackdays Yamaha),
taking both out of the race. Glen
Irwin (Gearlink Kawasaki) was
just as surprised as anyone as
he slipped through for an unlike-
ly win from Rispoli, with Irwin's
teammate Luke Hedger taking
third. Race one, however, went
according to the script, with Sta-
pleford and Ryde breaking clear
of the chasing pack to duke it
out between themselves with
Stapleford getting the victory
over Ryde and Andy Reid (Team
Traction Control Yamaha).
"It was a long race," Rispoli
said. "I ran a consistent pace
throughout the whole race
so I was happy with my per-
formance. To end up on the
podium feels great. I feel we are
rebuilding our season slowly
and we look to continue the mo-
mentum at the following races."
Shane Byrne (center)
received his trophy
from racing legend
Giacomo Agostini
(left).
James Rispoli
celebrates his return
to the podium in the
Supersport class.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
IMPACT
IMAGES
