Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne roared to a double at his home track of Brands Hatch at the latest round of the MCE British Superbike Championship.
It means that Byrne has extended his lead at the top of the championship with the double victory and what a weekend it was for the Sittingbourne based rider, becoming the first double winner of the season and taking the 17th of his career.
The four-times MCE BSB champion earned his race wins the hard way after qualifying in second place despite a technical problem in Datatag Qualifying yesterday but was confident going into the two races in glorious weather conditions at his local track.
However, a sluggish start to the opening 20-lap race around the 2.43-mile Grand Prix circuit saw the Sittingbourne rider fail to capitalise on his front row position, completing the first lap back in fifth place. There he remained for the first half of the race and following a safety car period that allowed him to close back up to the leading group of riders.
Once there, he was able to fully utilise his pace on the factory-backed Ducati Panigale R and on lap eleven he moved up to third place. With a quarter of the race remaining, he overtook Tommy Bridewell to take the lead for the first time and he was never headed again, coming home for his 14th career MCE BSB win at the Brands Hatch GP circuit.
Lining up in second place for the second race, Shakey again made a slow start and was back in ninth after the first lap and with more work to do than earlier in the day, particularly when he dropped back to 11th on lap five. From that moment on, though, he steadily moved forward and with six laps to go, he moved into third.
Another safety car period saw two laps added onto the race and on lap 19, Shakey hit the front for the first time, overtaking Leon Haslam at Druids. And with just three laps remaining, the 39-year-old wasn’t about to make any mistakes and he duly crossed the line to take his 74th career MCE BSB win and with it, his first double of the season to total 17 in his career. More importantly, he added 10 Podium Points to his tally and extended his lead in the overall title race to 25 points.
Byrne also won the coveted Monster King of Brands Trophy for his double victory.
Speaking after the weekend a delighted, Byrne said: “I completely fluffed the start in the first race and it gave me plenty of work to do. It was my fault and it made me change my race strategy slightly but after the safety car period, I was lying in fourth and set about the three riders in front of me.
“I had a good rhythm and grabbed the lead with a few laps to go so concentrated on hitting all my apexes to get the job done. It was a similar story in race two in terms of my start but I felt that if I could stay calm, there was still plenty of time for me to fight my way through.
“After the safety car went in, I decided to make my move straightaway, thinking there was only a couple of laps left so it threw me a bit when my pit board said there were still four laps to go! I thought I may have showed my hand too early but it all worked out well.
“We didn’t quite hit the nail on the head this weekend so to come away with a double shows just how far we’ve come and a massive thank you to everyone in the team for all their work, a double victory is an excellent feeling.”
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