Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne took his winning tally to an historic 50th career victory as he celebrated clinching his place in the MCE British Superbike end of season Showdown and the reigning champ is happy that he ‘finally’ managed to get the win on Sunday at Oulton Park.
The Sittingbourne rider qualified for the weekend's triple header in a strong second place before opening his account with a close second behind Milwaukee Yamaha’s James Ellison in Saturday's race, finishing just a tenth of a second behind his rival at the chequered flag.
However, with the fastest lap of the race, the triple champ started race two from pole position before taking the lead on the eighth lap whereby he was never headed again despite coming under intense pressure from firstly Ellison and then Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes, but he held on to take his ninth victory of the season.
In the final race of the busy weekend, the 36-year-old had to give second best to Brookes but the points gained from the three races saw him extend his lead in the title race but significantly, increased the important Podium Credits to 33 with four more races to go before the all-important Showdown commences.
"It's great to have finally got the 50th career win and with a large percentage of those having come on Paul's bikes; I'd like to dedicate that to him. He's been such an integral part of my career and it's great to be in the position we're in this year,” said Byrne.
“The races were tough all weekend as we were all so evenly matched, Saturday's being a prime example where James was quicker in the first part of the lap and I was quicker in the second half. He could edge away to begin with so all I could do was close the gap without actually getting close enough to make a pass.
"I wanted to hit the front as soon as possible and stay smooth, which is how it panned out in the first race even if I couldn't pull away. I tried to adopt the same strategy in the final race but I used too much of my tyre in the first part of the race so that when Josh came by, I didn't have a lot to give. We've ended the weekend with a win and two seconds so it's been a good meeting for us."