British Superbike News

Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne, took a double win at the Bank Holiday Monday round of the British Superbike Championship at Oulton Park.

Race One

As the riders started on their warm-up lap the rain started to fall but the race started with Tom Sykes taking the lead into the first corner but managed to take himself and Cal Crutchlow out. Three other riders also crashed out, David Johnson, Billy McConnell and Guy Martin bringing out the red flag allowing some of the riders to get back to the pits and onto their spare bikes.

Ten minutes later and the race was once again underway, with Leon Haslam taking the lead into the first corner, but not for long as Tom Sykes soon retook his position to lead the race ahead of Haslam and Cal Crutchlow.

Simon Andrews crashed out of lap one while Crutchlow took Haslam for the second place. On lap two, Shane Byrne toolk Haslamwho was now in an Airwaves Ducati sandwich with Leon Camier behind.

On lap four, Crutchlow took back the lead, while disaster struck again for Karl Harris as he high-sided his Yamaha ending another race without points for the injured rider.

With Shakey Byrne now up to second place, Cal Crutchlow came off his bike but managed to rejoin in fifth place behind his teammate, Leon Haslam handing the lead to Byrne, with Sykes losing his second place to Camier, making it a Airwaves Ducati one-two.

Sykes then lost the third position to Haslam, but he wasn’t going to give up that easily and started his challenge to take back that second place against Camier, which he finally made stick by lap fourteen.

As the rain once again started to fall, Haslam started to chase down Byrne. He managed to get past on the final lap but ran wide allowing Byrne to take the victory leaving him in second place with Camier in third.

Here are the results for Race One;

1. Shane Byrne (Airwaves Ducati)

2. Leon Haslam (HM Plant Honda) +0.204s

3. Leon Camier (Airwaves Ducati) +2.604s

4. Michael Rutter (North West 200 Ducati) +11.495s

5. Tom Sykes (Rizla Suzuki) +20.015s

6. Cal Crutchlow (HM Plant Honda) +22.023s

7. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +37.259s

8. James Ellison (Hydrex Bike Animal Honda) +39.322s

9. Tristan Palmer (Tena for Men Honda) +54.028s

10. Stuart Easton (MSS Discovery Kawasaki) +57.885s

Race Two

Cal Crutchlow started the race in the lead but soon lost it to Tom Sykes on the Rizla Suzuki while Leon Haslam sat in third.

Byrne made a mistake on the hairpin on lap two and lost eight places putting him in back in thirteenth position. Leon Haslam managed to get past Crutchlow on lap four.

On lap six, Cal Crutchlow set the fastest lap and Shakey Byrne had worked his way back up to fifth by lap eight, even passing his teammate Leon Camier.

Byrne’s moved up to fourth by lap ten and on lap eleven, Tom Sykes and Leon Haslam were battling it out giving Crutchlow the advantage he needed as Haslam ran off the track and returned in fifth place.

Crutchlow was then passed by Shakey as the already injured rider Karl Harris, who had already crashed out on race one, again crashed on lap thirteen at Druids.

Crutchlow, who’s day you thought just couldn’t get any worse, got worse, and he crashed out at speed and was lying in the gravel trap at Druids in pain bringing the red flag out.

Steve Mercer also crashed out and was winded while Dean Ellison the Yamaha rider, was left unconscious and taken to the circuit medical centre. Fortunately he was not badly hurt after regaining consciousness.

As the race had past the two-thirds race distance and some of the riders had past the start/finish line to start lap fourteen, the stewards decided they could declare Shane Byrne the winner with James Ellison in second and Leon Camier in third.

* Leon Haslam has been stripped of his fourth place position in race two as the Superbike organisers deemed him to have ridden carelessly during the course of the meeting.

It was the second race weekend in a row that Haslam and Sykes had clashed with Sykes going down and unable to compete while Haslam managed to continue to the end.

Here are the results for Race Two;

1. Shane Byrne (Airwaves Ducati)

2. James Ellison (Hydrex Bike Animal Honda) +4.247s

3. Leon Camier (Airwaves Ducati) +8.027s

4. Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +1 lap

5. Stuart Easton (MSS Discovery Kawasaki) +1 lap

6. Michael Rutter (North West 200 Ducati) +1 lap

7. Simon Andrews (Jentin Racing/Lloyds British Yamaha) +1 lap

8. Scott Smart (Hawk Kawasaki) +1 lap

9. Atsushi Watanabe (Rizla Suzuki) +1 lap

10.Billy McConnell (MSS Discovery Kawasaki) + 1 lap