Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki’s Shane Byrne left it till the final MCE British Superbike session and his penultimate lap to set his fastest time at the Snetterton 300 circuit of 1’47.955 which is under his own lap record at the Norfolk circuit set in 2011 on a bike using full electronics.

No other rider was able to get inyo the 1’47’s – and his closest rival today was Millsport Ducati’s Jakub Smrz, who in the second session set his best lap of 1’48.603, but was unable to improve in session three.

Housewive's favourite Chris Walker was only three tenths of a second off the pace of the former World Superbike contender who in the combined timesheets clocked the third quickest time, with Honda Racing’s Julien Da Costa and Tyco Suzuki’s John Hopkins rounding off the top five overall times with a 1’52.002 and 1’52.340 respectively.

In the third and final session with an hour to go it was initially Da Costa who was the quickest with a 1’49.114, but was toppled from the top spot by Byrne and Walker.

Elsewhere out on the 300 circuit Buildbase BMW’s Ryuichi Kiyonari suffered a technical problem at Riches while sixth fastest. But things got worse for the three times BSB winner - as with 30 minutes left of track time left to go the Japanese racer caused a red flag after crashing at Murrays, but was declared OK.

Kiyo was not the only rider to take a tumble – Quattro Kawasaki’s Dan Linfoot fell at Palmers but was unhurt with fifteen minutes remaining. In the last session of the afternoon Walker clocked the second fastest time of 1’48.931, followed by Da Costa, Hopkins and Ellison.

The Milwaukee Yamaha camp were not competing at the two day test – but they were not the only absentees. Quattro Kawasaki’s Howie Mainwaring Smart crashed in the testing sessions yesterday – and dislocated his shoulder, meaning he had to miss today’s proceedings and looks likely that he will miss the opening round at Brands Hatch in a few days time.

In the opening session this morning it was Byrne who impressed with his race pace. With minutes of track time remaining he put in a lap that was two tenths of a second quicker than his qualifying time from a year ago – a 1’48.220.  Once again, as a repeat of yesterday’s sessions the triple champ was the only rider to lap inside the 1’48 barrier, in session one. But Smrz was never too far behind Byrne with a 1’49.433, with Ellison third quickest with a 1’49.918 lap.

The second outing turned into a crash fest. After nine minutes the first red flag appeared after Superstock 1000 competitor Gavin Hunt crashed at Bombhole, then PR Racing’s Keith Farmer fell at Oggies but was declared ok at the track side.

Then the youngest BSB rider in the competition – Halsall Racing’s Harry Hartley caused another red flag as he hit the gravel at Riches, damaging the barrier protection in the process. Then Smrz fell but was declared OK, with two minutes remaining.

But it did not matter too much to the Czech rider as he was the fastest in the second outing with a 1’48.603, but it was not quick enough to out do Byrne’s lap from the previous session. The Kawasaki lad was unable to get the better of Smrz and finished one-four hundredths of a second behind the Ducati, with Walker and Da Costa finishing the second testing programme in third and fourth on the timesheets.

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