Be Wiser Ducati’s Shane Byrne begins the defence of his MCE British Superbike title at Donington Park this weekend but is waiting on some upgrades to come from the Borgo Panigale factory.

The five-time champion has missed out on some test time due to poor weather at Jerez and the new parts weren’t available but  Byrne is hopeful they will arrive soon.

“Well, finally round one is here. It's been a long winter to be honest, having won last year, I've been itching to go racing again ever since. Pre-season testing was good but not ideal as some of the parts we wanted to test weren’t available. But hopefully those parts will be with us shortly and will certainly be worth the wait. The plan at Donington is to push as hard as I can throughout the weekend to get my title defence off to the best possible start,” he said.