HM Plant Honda's Shane Byrne used the Cadwell Park British Superbike round as a test session to evaluate new parts such as a KR swingarm in order to keep pace with the Swan Yamahas in the final three rounds of the championship.

Byrne was already secure in the top six so was riding for podium credits all weekend. He finished just behind Tommy Hill in the points table but has valuable data on the swingarm plus a new shock and fork springs to take back to team headquarters.

“I had already qualified for the Showdown before this round so my focus was on collecting podium credit scores on the home circuit of the team who have been doing such a good job for me here. Without being disrespectful to anyone, we have been using these races almost as a bit of a test," said the two-time champion.

"We’ve tried a number of new parts in the races and the bike is feeling really good. We changed the rear shocks and had new spring in the forks for the final race here to try and do two sighting laps before the race to give the team more feed back.

"I wasn’t out there for second place, but I made an error at the chicane and had to settle for fourth. We had been down on the Yamahas at the start of the weekend, but we have bridged that gap and we are now ready for the finale to the championship."