PBM Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne is a ‘bit disappointed’ after missing out on pole position for the first MCE British Superbike race of the season at Donington Park tomorrow. A 1’29.659 lap was enough to place the reigning four-time champion on P3 during qualifying this afternoon.
Byrne is still recovering from a broken hand, and injured it when he high-sided during the official BSB test in Spain a few weeks ago, and still feels a bit ‘rusty’. His team have been working hard in the off season and Byrne was never outside the top five quickest times throughout all the free practice sessions all weekend.
The seasoned rider knows that it will be a challenge with title rivals, Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari, JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison and Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes all setting similar lap times, but Byrne hopes he can do enough to reach the top step of the podium not once, but twice on Monday.
“The reality is I am a bit rusty and I don’t feel as strong on the bike as I should do, and the team have worked hard over the winter. But the problem is that I am trying to put all that hard work together over the course of the race weekend, and then you have Kiyo banging them out in the 1’29’s like they are going out of fashion and all the other are really close to,” said Byrne at the track.
“You get to the point that you say to yourself I have to go fast too. If I am honest I always say it is important to get on the front row , but I am a little bit disappointed, and after all that hard work I couldn’t believe that I was two tenths off pole.”
