Be Wiser Ducati rider Shane Byrne says there is work to be done if he is to challenge this weekend, despite finishing second on the MCE British Superbike timesheets at Knockhill.
Byrne said he had a difficult day on the Panigale, though it didn’t hold him back too much as he went under his own lap record in second practice at the Scottish circuit.
“The team did a good job in the first one, although we didn’t have a particularly good feeling with the bike,” said the four-time BSB champion.
“We improved that a little bit this afternoon, but there are still two corners on the track where we’re struggling a little bit.
“My lap-times improved quite significantly, in fact I think it’s pretty much the fastest I’ve been around here and I’m a quarter of a second under my own lap record.
“For that, I’m really, really happy but it’s just about getting some feeling. We’re not slow in any particular corner or sector, but we just don’t have a good feeling, so if we can get that and increase the speed a little bit I’m sure we’ll be in a good place for tomorrow.”
Quite a few riders have voiced concerns about the weather, which could play havoc with riders chances and throw up a few surprises in Scotland.
Today’s sessions saw some heavy rain showers in between, but luckily for the British Superbike stars they made it through both morning and afternoon practices dry.
That surprised Byrne and even though he believes the PBM Ducati team need to figure some things out to have a prosperous weekend he was grateful for the good weather in Fife.
“It’s been a pretty tough day to be honest, I mean the end result of the second session was quite good but I think we’ve been very lucky with the weather up here,” he said.
“I’ve looked at the forecast and it was supposed to be pretty bad, so I’m happy we’ve had two dry sessions.”