Shane Byrne, and the extra five kilos of weight on his Airwaves Ducati, dominated race one of the British Superbike Championship at Donington Park this afternoon finishing more than two seconds ahead of hometown hero Leon Haslam.
Byrne had the field's measure for the entire race and extends his championship lead over Cal Crutchlow, who is still injured, to 59 points and could only manage sixth.
Rizla Suzuki's Tom Sykes, who yo-yo'd up and down the top five after storming through from the fourth row of the grid, got the last place on the podium.
Karl Harris, who led Saturday's free practice timesheets, ended up in seventh after losing three places on the penultimate corner. He had been up as high as second before allowing Ellison, Camier and Crutchlow through.
Shakey led into Redgate away from the start, but had it taken away from him a couple of corners later by Hydrex Honda rider James Ellison. As lap two started he was followed by Shakey and Crutchlow. Ellison continued to stun the crowd by steadily holding the position for a couple of laps before Shakey made his move.

Harris was sitting in positive fourth followed by Michael Rutter in fifth. On lap three Cal Crutchlow moved up to second in front of Ellison pushing him into the clutches of Harris and Rutter. Leon Haslam sat further down the order, but was making time up as he was lapping quicker than the leaders on lap four, as Karl Harris moved up to third.

On lap six there was a heart-stopping moment as an umbrella flew across the track and as commentator James Whitham said: 'It's not raining and its not windy, why would you have an umbrella?" Cal Crutchlow took the lead, but it wasn't long until Shakey gained it back.

As it's never dull in racing a couple of laps later the safety car was bought out after Luke Quigley's PDM Racing's GSX-R1000 K8 caught fire beneath him, fortunately unhurt he was able to ride it and lay it down on the grass as the marshal's got the blaze under control.

After following the safety car for two laps this allowed the riders to re-group, which wasn't good for Byrne who had slightly pulled away at the front. As the race restarted, Byrne dropped the hammer and edged away from Harris and Cal Crutchlow.

Numerous riders including Tom Sykes, Leon Camier and Leon Haslam worked their up to the grid. Cal Crutchlow finished off the podium in fifth after loosing out to Ellison and Camier. Haslam returned to top form at a circuit he should know like the back of his hand to take second after his start let him down and bad luck seem to leave Rizla Suzuki rider Sykes alone allowing him to take third place.

A solid ride for Camier with fourth place who along with Simon Andrews has never ridden a Superbike at before, Andrews who started from 24th on the grid stormed to take 10th. overall. Retirements included Aaron Zanotti, Chris Burns, Billy McConnell, David Johnson and Shannon Etheridge, the replacement rider for the injured Malcolm Ashley.

The Cup championship first place was taken by John Laverty on the North West 200 Ducati, followed by the debuting Gary Mason who replaces James Buckingham in the Quay Garage Honda team followed by Tom Tunstall of Hardinge Ice Valley Motorsport who achieved his goal of a podium finish this weekend.
Bennetts British Superbikes race one - conditions dry

1 Shane Byrne Airwaves Ducati 32'01.058
2 Leon Haslam HM Plant Honda 32'03.531
3 Tom Sykes Rizla Suzuki 32'04.500
4 James Ellison Hydrex Honda 32'06.914
5 Leon Camier Airwaves Ducati 32'07.246
6 Cal Crutchlow HM Plant Honda 32'07.694
7 Karl Harris Team Yamaha 32'08.522
8 Michael Rutter NW200 Ducati 32'10.867
9 Michael Laverty Relentless Suzuki 32'13.865
10 Simon Andrews Jentin Yamaha 32'17.304
11 Stuart Easton MSS Kawasaki 32'17.934
12 Tristan Palmer Tena Honda 32'21.059
13 Tom Grant SMT Honda 32'24.144
14 Dean Ellison Co-ordit Yamaha 32'26.352
15 Scott Smart Hawk Kawasaki 32'26.544