It’s hard to see who, apart from Shane Byrne and the Airwaves Ducati team, came out of this weekend’s BSB meeting looking good.

The MCRCB certainly didn’t and its directors, which include Motorsport Vision boss Jonathan Palmer, will in all probability be ducking legal pieces of paper for many months to come.

Donington Park will not be happy. It’s believed that as soon as the half-baked rule change, which was meant to stop Shane Byrne doing exactly what he went on to do this weekend, was announced advance ticket sales stalled. And Donington will want some recompense for lost earnings.

Estimates for spectators yesterday were 10,000. And that includes all the people who don’t pay – team guests, competition winners etc. Probably half what the track was expecting, even with the foul weather that was forecast.

GSE Racing, and to some extent the NW200 Ducati team, can’t be particularly pleased with the way events were handled. The teams were not, apparently, consulted before the weight limit rule change was announced just four days before they were due to roll into Leicestershire.

The weight rule itself seems to have been arbitrary. British Superbikes do not conform to the same rule book as World Superbikes. The rule book issued by the sport’s governing body, the FIM.

And then the MCRCB appeared to perform a spectacular U-turn and met the teams halfway ONLY after Ducati Corse itself intervened.
Why is it the MCRCB listen to Ducati in Italy, but no-one else, not even the FIM?

Last year, when the teams were told they would be running supersport-spec engines, Colin Wright stuck his hand up and said: “Hang on lads, I could do with some help here, can we all run non-stock conrods as the Ducati ones can’t stand it?”

The rest of the world said no.

Then, as Tom Sykes’ bike ate itself at Brands, the rest of the world starts demanding to use aftermarket this and that on safety grounds because their bikes, allegedly, can’t keep up with the Ducatis unless they have a 14,000rpm redline, where the Ducatis have 10,500rpm.

What the teams running four cylinder bikes should have been told was that they agreed to these rules (the rules by which GSE have abided) in the first place so they have to live with them and stop crying.

Can you imagine if, halfway through a Premiership season, FA chief Brian Barwick told Manchester United they were winning by too much and they could only now compete if two of their players had similar dimensions to Jo Brand? There would be a riot…
The MCRCB will say it's their ball and they can do with it as they see fit and that a football ref can end off a player and he doesn't have to explain why. OK, fair enough but at least you can visibly see the argument on the pitch and not have it hidden away.
This may, of course, give Honda the excuse they were looking for to get out of BSB entirely. They would have done so this season had it not been for the HM Plant sponsorship.

There was a lot of talk after the race about the Ducatis weighing around 173.5kgs after race two and that it shouldn’t be hard to find another three kilos to meet the weight. Which is fair and within the technical rules.
There have been phone calls, undoudbtedly, between the teams and the MCRCB which we aren't privy to. Maybe the actual weight isn't the issue, it's moving the goalposts without telling the people who actually pay these people's wages - you, the spectators.
It’s strange that, in AMA, no-one starts bawling when Mat Mladin and Ben Spies up and clear off. Everyone just seems to acknowledge they are the best, and there isn’t a spat dummy in sight.

There was no way, due to contractural obligations with sponsors, that Airwaves were not going to show up at Donington. A GSE insider said over the weekend: “Well, we didn’t know if we would be thrown out of the championship for not turning up either. There’s nothing in the rules about it. You seem to be penalized for winning and that’s not in the rules, so who knows?”

The plain truth is that no-one can, at the moment, live with the best rider on the best bike and that is Shane Byrne, whether he has got extra bags of sugar on board or not.