Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne once again dominated the MCE British Superbike testing time-sheets, but this time it was at the Snetterton 300 circuit. The triple champ left it till there was sixteen minutes left of the final outing to go quickest, after only doing a handful of laps.
In the process he knocked off the only Ducati on the BSB grid, which belonged to Millsport's Jakub Smrz. The former World Superbike rider almost won the accolade of being the fastest rider on track, after putting in a 1’49.099, with 30 minutes left - but it was not enough to hold off the charge of Byrne who did a 1’48.713, the quickest time of the day.
Even though Smrz was able to better his lap time – he ended the day nearly a second slower that Byrne, who was the only rider to lap inside the 1’48 barrier. Followed by the Czech rider, was veteran, GBmoto’s Chris Walker who clocked a 1’50.011, followed by another triple champ, by the name of Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari. The Japanese rider did top the timesheets in the final session of the day – but soon dropped down the order on his new BMW machine to end the afternoon with a 1’50.270, with American returnee, Tyco Suzuki’s John Hopkins completing the top five with a 1’50.804.
There were a few absentees today – most notably the Milwaukee camp of Josh Brookes and Tommy Bridewell. But the other riders made the most of the dry weather in the afternoon outing, including Dan Linfoot and RAF Reserves Honda of Simon Andrews, who finished the day well inside the top ten in sixth and seventh respectively. With Buildbase BMW’s James Westmoreland and Honda Racing’s Julien Da Costa rounding off the top ten, with the Frenchman ending day one at Snetterton was 1’50.918.
There were some riders who hit the gravel. With less than ten minutes remaining Quattro Plant’s Howie Mainwaring fell at Palmers and was taken to the medical centre, causing a red flag. Tsingtao WK rider Jon Kirkham fell at Hamilton just as the chequered flag appeared, while he was 26th on the timing screen.
In the opening session it was Andrews who was reigned supreme with his best lap of in damp conditions, followed by Bathams rider Michael Rutter and Dan Linfoot who rounded off the top three. In the second testing session it was Byrne who was the quickest with a 1’50,177, with Smrz nearly a second behind, with Andrews in third on the timing screens with a 1’52,003.
