Be Wiser Ducati’s Shane Byrne is now up to third in the MCE British Superbike championship standings, and is firmly in showdown contention.
The Panigale rider came away from the Scottish circuit of Knockhill with two third place finishes, and is not feeling too disheartened today, even though he is disappointed that he didn’t come away with the double victory, which went to protégée Jake Dixon.
But for Byrne what he needed was a solid points haul and those valuable podium credits, and his wish came true on Sunday. His team also worked hard this weekend and changed a lot on his Ducati including offsets, springs and pivot positions, as the reigning champ was initially not too comfortable with the setup for the Fife track.
Byrne came into the weekend being outside the top six in the standings, and now he has overtaken the injured, Tyco BMW’s Christian Iddon, who has slipped back to fourth overall.
“It was a tough weekend, I came here needing a strong weekend. Last year in the dry here was very difficult on the Panigale we have done a lot of work since then and kind of thought we could come here strong and do the best job we possibly could, and unfortunately this weekend it was two thirds,” said Byrne.
“The important thing for me is that we had a strong weekend to make it into the showdown, so that box is ticked and we picked up a couple of podium credits, which isn’t perfect but it is far from a disaster.
“So the objective of making the showdown has been done but I wanted to come here and win, I am not going to lie but when a bad weekend is two thirds then it is not quite disastrous. I think it is the hardest I have ever had to work for two third place finishes in my life. We can take a lot of positives from here.”
After race one Byrne added: “I got a good start, but it was always going to be a difficult race for us because before the race the boys changed offsets, springs, pivot positions, absolutely everything on the bike because I have been whinging all weekend that the bike has not been quite there.
“But at the same time I have been desperate to win on this bike here, the boys did a good job but by the time I got through to third, Luke was managing his gap to me and Jake was off out in front and doing a tremendous job.”
