Be Wiser Ducati’s Shane Byrne was victorious in the second MCE British Superbike race at Oulton Park, and is now only three points away from being inside the top six and in Showdown contention.
It was a solid points haul for the reigning champ as he was also on the podium in the opening race, after finishing second to JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam. Between the two events his PBM crew worked hard on making more changes to his Panigale and the adaptations proved ‘positive’ for Byrne.
He was able to maintain the Pirelli tyres and in both races used the softer rear and front compounds. The Be Wiser team had a lot to celebrate as his team-mate, Glenn Irwin had his best BSB career finish, with second in race two.
“I didn’t get the best of starts, Leon and Jason got away first and I saw Jason attacking Leon and I was fairly sure the changes we made to the bike were going to be better and when Jason passed Leon I then got passed them and I thought just concentrate and hit all your marks,” said Byrne at the circuit.
“I tried to stay smooth and consistent and I managed to get a bit of a gap and everything was going to plan. I came around at it said plus seven on my pit board and I thought it cant be seven seconds and I came around again and the team gave me the same pit board and I rode it home.
“I literally backed off and I thought just ride it home. Fair play to Jason and it is good to see him on the podium, and for Glenn my wing man he is doing a great job too, and I need to up my game and stay in front.
“We made a positive change for race two, and the bike was much more consistent and the lap times were half sensible for race pace and it worked out.”
After race one Byrne added: “I felt really comfortable and to be honest I was more than happy to sit on the back of Leon, and Luke was off the back of me and I thought for me now this is perfect. Leon did some laps and went faster and even that was cool and I was happy.
“Six or seven laps from the end I started to make little mistakes not so much on corner exit, more on corner entry because the bike was starting to come around on me a little bit, and that got a bit worse as the race wore on.
“Towards the end I desperately wanted to give Leon a race and to win, but at the same time I desparately need points and podium credits, so I had to settle for second. It was a comfortable win for Leon and a comfortable second for me.”
