Be Wiser Ducati's Shane Byrne missed the opening races of the MCE British Superbike championship at Donington Park after suffering from concussion. The defending champ was ruled out of today's track proceedings after a crash during warm-up, but he has vowed to come back stronger.

Fortunately Byrne did not break any bones but under medical advice he could not compete in the double header which saw title rival, JG Speedfit Kawasaki's Leon Haslam win both races at the Leicestershire circuit.

Byrne was transported on a stretcher to the medical centre after a crash at Craner Curve, and before the incident he had been up the sharp end and setting consistently fast times all race weekend.

The Panigale racer is naturally disappointed, after missing out on potentially clinching a podium finish, but he will now rest for a few days and be back ready and rearing to go at his home round of Brands Hatch.

"Big crash this morning, knock out and concussion. Thank you for the all the BSB medics and doctors who looked after me, a few days off, then we will be back." said Byrne.

“It was disappointing to sit out the races  today but I’ve been around racing long enough to know things like this happen.  The good news is that nothing is broken and after a couple  of day’s rest, I’ll be absolutely fine.

"The championship hasn’t been won today  and there’s an awful lot more races that are there for us to win. I’m going off  to Spain  to relax and have a few days in the sun to recover and I intend to bounce back  at Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks’ time.” 

Paul Bird, Team Owner echoed the sentiments of Byrne: “Losing Shakey was obviously a huge blow and  whilst the podium finish for Glenn doesn’t quite make up for things, it’s  certainly a big boost to the team. I thought it would be a big ask for Glenn to  finish on the podium given the bike isn’t much different to last year.

"He’s shown today though how much he’s  improved as a rider and he’s beaten some quality riders in both races which  bodes well for the rest of the year as he’s only going to get stronger. As for  Shakey, it’s a massive disappointment as Donington is one of his strongest  circuits. He got caught out but it’s happened to the best riders in the world  at some stage so we’ll just have to take it on the chin.”

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