Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne showed his class as he took victory in the opening two rounds of the 2014 MCE British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch.

Having had to qualify in torrential conditions on Sunday afternoon, Shakey found himself well down the grid for the start of race one on Easter Monday.

However, Byrne wasn’t to panic and found himself up to sixth place after the end of the first lap and within distance of striking on the top three places.

It was a dream start for the local racer and it wasn’t long before he found himself running in fourth place and a mistake by Josh Brookes when he was in the lead, crashing out meant Shakey was soon in the top three.

Veteran rider Chris Walker was the man that he was chasing down for the victory and he was within half a second and closing rapidly when the race was red flagged on lap 16. The race was to restart once the oil spill was cleaned up with twelve laps to run.

Walker got to the first corner first ahead of Byrne and Ellison and it wasn’t long before Shakey made his move and roared off into the distance to take the chequered flag in the opening round of the season.

Speaking after the race a delighted Shakey, said: “Yesterday was difficult but today we knew we had the pace in the dry. We knew I had my work cut out a little bit with our qualifying position, but it’s the first race of a really, really long championship so I got my head down. I got a decent enough start and started picking people off; I just desperately didn’t want to rush anything and make a silly mistake.

“I got up to second eventually and upped my own rhythm a little bit and there was quite a lot of laps to go, maybe 19 or 20 laps and I could see that Chris was away at the front. I got to Chris and then the race got red-flagged. The restart made it a little bit easier. I knew Chris would be really fast in the beginning, so I tried to get in the lead as quick as possible and just stay clean and tidy.

“It’s a shame Josh (Brookes) wasn’t there because I’m sure he’ll throw a completely different element into the mix in race two, we’ll see where we go from there.”

Byrne was right Brookes did throw a completely different element into race two, however it came too little too late to stop the 2014 title favourite taking victory.

Starting from P2 on the grid by virtue of his race win earlier in the day, Shakey lead by the first corner and roared off into the distance with Stuart Easton his teammate his nearest challenger.

Eventually James Ellison got past Easton and started to gain on Byrne but he didn’t quite have the pace to catch and pass him. As the race wore on Brookes made his move and with two laps to go he got past Ellison to take second place.

He set after Byrne as he smelt a first victory of the season but on the last lap he couldn’t quite get close enough to Shakey out of the final corner to get a run down the straight and the Kent rider made it a perfect Easter weekend and start to the season.

Giving his thoughts after race two, Shakey added: “In terms of the races everything has been perfect this weekend. The second race was pretty tough and the lap times weren’t as fast but I had a strategy where I wanted to get away as I knew Josh would come through like I had done in the first race as we have been similar on lap times all weekend.

“I figured I needed to get out the front and see what we could do but the lap timer on my bike packed up, not making excuses, but it showed me the same lap time for six or seven laps and I thought there is no way I am that consistent!

“I hadn’t realised they were reeling me back in and I was thinking ‘this isn’t in the script, this isn’t my plan’ but Josh held second and I tried to not make any mistakes. Fortunately it panned out and fingers crossed we can take it to them again at Oulton Park.”

There was one man just as happy as Shane to see the first round of the season turn into the perfect start for Easter and that was Team owner Paul Bird.

He said: “What a fantastic way to start the season with Shakey taking a double victory at his home track, especially after we had some problems in qualifying in the wet. The team worked brilliantly and proved that we are serious about wanting our title back.

“Stuart made things difficult for himself in qualifying but once again proved what he could do in the dry and now he’s got a meeting on a Superbike under his belt, he’ll come stronger. A great day and once again, my team and riders have done me proud, roll on our local round at Oulton Park in two weeks’ time.”

The season now moves onto Oulton Park for rounds four, five and six of the season over the May Day Bank holiday weekend.

Picture supplied by http://www.psp-images.co.uk/