IN
THE
WIND
P50
BRITISH SUPERBIKE:
BYRNE THE KING OF BRANDS
S
hane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) stretched his
lead in the MCE Insurance British Superbike
Championship to 29 points over JG Speedfit
Kawasaki's Luke Mossey after recording a double
victory at Brands Hatch, July 23-24.
Byrne was in scintillating form in both races but
was pipped for pole by Australian Josh Brookes
on the Anvil Hire Tag Yamaha, the veteran quali-
fying sixth place behind Brookes, Mossey, Dan
Linfoot (Honda Racing) Peter Hickman (Smiths
Racing BMW) and American John Hopkins (Moto
Rapido Ducati).
But despite the qualifying disappointment,
Byrne managed to hold of Linfoot for a 0.365
second win in race one, and made good on his
speed in race two by finishing a solid 5.7 seconds
ahead of James Ellison (McAMS Yamaha) with
Tyco BMW's Christian Iddon in third.
"I started on the front row and got a good start
for once which was lovely," Byrne said. "I very
quickly got into the lead and just thought 'go for it'.
I got my head down and ran a pretty fast race—25
flat, 25.1, 25.2—consistently fast.
"We've been working really hard this weekend
to improve the package and we've done just that I
think. We've had a really consistent bike all week-
end and hopefully we can take that now to Thrux-
ton and try and repeat this again."
America's John Hopkins took home ninth in
race one and 11th in race two. CN
Shane Byrne was
unstoppable at his
favorite circuit of Brands
Hatch in round six of
the British Superbike
Championship.
