PBM Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne took a dominant opening MCE British Superbike race win at Snetterton and crossed the line with a 2.6s advantage over second place finisher, Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes.
Honda Racing’s Jason O’Halloran bagged his debut BSB podium to take the final spot on the rostrum. Byrne is now the overall championship leader with a twelve point advantage over Brookes who jumps up to second in the standings, after JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison retired with a chain problem on his ZX-10R, with five laps remaining.
Byrne got the hole-shot with O’Halloran and Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty close behind, but the quadruple-champ powered on ahead and by lap two had a two second advantage over the Honda and BMW machine.
On the third rotation Laverty was over taken by his Wiltshire team-mate, Bridewell who on the Senna Straight was able to go into a provisional podium spot. But Brookes was edging ever close to the front group and eyed Laverty as his target, and got the better of him going into Riches on lap five of sixteen, and charged on ahead to challenge former team-mate Bridewell for third.
The Devizes swearbox held on till there were nine laps to go, only for the Bringelly rider to find that added pace to ease through to third. On the tenth rotation Brookes was the only rider to lap inside the 1’48 bracket, going nearly half a second quicker than O’Halloran.
With the added pace Brookes was able to gain some time on his fellow countryman and with only six laps left to the opening race overtook O’Halloran to soar into second, making up for a slow start.
Further down the field there emerged a six-way battle for fifth, with Honda Racing’s Dan Linfoot leading the way. The Yorkshireman did indeed hold on to clinch fifth from Be Wiser Kawasaki’s Chris Walker, Easton, Mainwaring, Mossey, with Anvil Hire TAG Racing’s Richard Cooper rounding up the top ten.
Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari never recovered from a poor start and finished well outside the points in twentieth. His team-mate Lee Jackson fell at Agostini, and JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Westmoreland had a technical issue at Williams. But the Northerner was not the only one to experience problems, as Anvil hire TAG Racing’s Filip Backlund came to an abrupt halt at Riches.
Tyco BMW’s Michael Laverty was on course to gain some solid points, and was riding high in fifth, but with eight laps to go had to retire to the pits with a technical issue.
