PBM Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne clinched the MCE British Superbike pole position this afternoon by 0.001 seconds from title challenger, Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes, leaving the reigning champ a very happy rider this evening even though he said his pole lap was a bit of a tangle.
Byrne is adamant that pole is not important, but it is the front row that is always the aim for him, and today in Q3 he achieved his target and will line up for race one in P1 on the grid.
The local rider felt that he could have edged more out of his best 1’256.331 lap but he made a small mistake coming out of Sheene Curve that lost him a few tenths, but he was still narrowly quicker than Brookes and bagged the fastest rider accolade today.
“I’m happy to be pole position, but we always, always, always aim just to be on the front row. We’ve worked hard this weekend on the race package and try to be consistent on lots of laps, that’s going to be a key factor and something we’re still chipping away at,” said Byrne at the track.
“On my lap time that got pole I had a bit of a moment coming out of Sheene Curve – I flicked my feet of the pegs just a tiny bit and got me all a bit in a tangle. I just about missed the apex at Stirlings and didn’t get the best of runs out of there.
“The last sector has been good for the bike this weekend and to lose that little bit was a bit disappointing, so I thought right, if that could be a 1m25.3s, then for sure I could go faster but I pushed the envelope just a little bit too much into Paddock Hill the following lap and went a tiny bit wide and thought okay, abort, abort – cool down and then we’ll go again.
“I did another really good lap time but it was just a tenth off what I’d already done before and fortunately, there was plus 0.001s, but it was pole, it doesn’t really mean a great deal. There are no prizes for pole position; it just gives us a good start for tomorrow. Hopefully we’re going to have two great races and there will be a big crowd here and we’ll see what we’ve got tomorrow.”
