HM Plant Honda's Leon Haslam has taken the Croft British Superbikes race two victory this afternoon, takkng his tally of wins to four from five races.
Airwaves Ducati's Shane Byrne just failed to tie up the 2009 British Superbike title even though team-mate Leon Camier allowed him through to fourth with four laps to go after a signal on his pitboard.
Byrne came together with NW200 Ducati's Michael Rutter on lap one, which pushed him down to tenth and then had to set fastest lap after fastest lap to get back with the leaders.
It wasn't enough, however, as he was narrowly beaten by Rizla Suzuki's Tom Sykes and Haslam's team-mate Cal Crutchlow.
Yet again, Crutchlow led into the first corner followed by Rutter,  Sykes, race one winner Camier of Airwaves Ducati and Haslam in fifth.
By the end of lap one Sykes had moved to second and, after settling for a lap, the leading group of five were 1.8 seconds ahead as they started lap three.  The order started to change with Rutter making a mistake pushing him back down to fifth and then to progressively dropped off the back of the front-runners.
By lap seven Byrne had battled back up to sixth to close the gap down to Rutter who he overtook on lap 13.  Lap eight saw Haslam move up to third ahead of Camier, a lap before Crutchlow was overtaken by Sykes who then led until lap 19.
At this point the Rizla Suzuki was ahead of the Hondas who were in front of the Airwaves Ducati pair.  Three quarters of the way through Camier did try to move ahead of Haslam for third by making a move at the Complex, but was unable to make it stick.
Haslam ended that battle by moving up a place in front of Crutchlow with two laps to go again at Complex, what seems to be the most common corner to make a manoeuvre.  Crutchlow did not give it up without a fight, but had to settle for third as he crossed the finish line.
On the penultimate lap it was an edge of the seat moment for all as Haslam moved into the lead pushing Sykes to second, which meant that Byrne only needed third to wrap up the championship title once and for all.  The final lap saw Byrne desperately trying to find a way around Crutchlow, yet at the same time not taking too big a risk, but it just wasn’t to be.
Haslam took the win, followed by Sykes and Crutchlow leaving Byrne off the podium and the championship title to be clinched at the next round at Silverstone in two weeks.
Gary Mason of Quay Honda Racing took the second win of the day in the Daily Star Cup with John Laverty of the NW200 taking second and the 2008 championship title with Hardinge Ice Valley Honda's Tom Tunstall rounding off the top three.
Billy McConnell of MSS Kawasaki who didn’t qualify due to his bike not started was allowed to start at the back of the grid to finish 17th in race one, but had to retire within race two.  Chris Burns of STP Superbike, Guy Martin of Hydrex Animal Honda and Scott Smart of Hawk Kawasaki also retired.
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