British Superbike News

This weekend the rescheduled round of the British Superbike Championship takes place at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent.

It is the favourite track of Shane Byrne, who has won three out of four races this season and has built a 39 point gap between himself and the second place man, and his Airwaves Ducati team-mate, Leon Camier.

Byrne already knows he is in pole position for the race, after qualifying on the snow covered track last month before the weekend event was cancelled and the positions carried over to this weekend.

Alongside Shakey should be Cal Crutchlow, but it will depend if the HM Plant Honda rider is fit after sustaining an ankle injury at last weeks race at Oulton Park.

Another injured rider, Karl Harris is on the front row for Rob Mac Racing Yamaha with Leon Haslam finishing the front row line-up.

Haslam was disqualified from the second race of the last round under a ruling of careless driving when he made contact with Tom Sykes for the second weekend in a row.  Haslam considered it to be a racing incident and said to Eurosport “Tom made a mistake into the chicane and I was always on the inside of him.  I knew we were going to hit but I tried to avoid him by letting off the brakes.”

“We’ve said it’s a racing incident and so did Tom.  The decision is a complete joke” said Haslam

Tom Sykes said “Leon has been in to see me and held his hands up for the accident but it’s just a big let down for me.  All I know is that he jumped the kerb trying to our-brake me and I ended up paying the big price for his mistake.”

Leon Camier, second in the Championship, will start on the second row of the grid alongside Tom Sykes on the Rizla Suzuki.  Sykes will be looking for a better race this time round after having crashed twice in his last three races, although not all his own doing.

Simon Andrews on the Lloyds British Jentin Yamaha and Michael Rutter on the North West 200 Ducati fill the final two places on the front row.