Round 6 - MCE British Superbike Championship - Thruxton - Race One
Shane 'Shakey' Byrne has been on top of the time sheets all weekend, and it was no surprise when he won race one at Thruxton in a commanding fashion.
Byrne made a great start from pole position and looked capable from the offset of breaking away comfortably. Billy McConnell had a fantastic start pushing his FS-3 Racing Kawasaki through the pack and up to third by the end of the second lap. Laverty had a series of overtakes and soon found himself in second place.
It was a fantastic race which saw a number of overtakes throughout, with a number of riders looking capable of bagging a podium finish. Byrne however continued to build a lead and looked set to continue as the race progressed.
However, the race was red flagged with Stuart Easton crashing out following a technical problem and the riders returned back to the pits whilst the track was being attended to.
Upon the race restart Michael Laverty roared into first, followed by Byrne and McConnell. However Byrne appeared never to leave his back wheel and a couple of laps later took first and was able to begin to rebuild the lead he had achieved before the restart.
McConnell, having put in a fantastic race began to drop back and the riders close behind were able to take advantage. Ellison, who has had a disappointing weekend by his standards appeared close behind and began to push his JG Speedfit Kawasaki hard, moving into fifth place ahead of Bridewell. Haslam who was fighting at the front of the pack at the start of the race dropped back a number of places after the restart and finished in an overall thirteenth.
O'Halloran appeared to be struggling with grip in the closing few laps, looking uncomfortable leaning the bike over too far, of which Mossey, Bridewell and Ellison were able to take advantage of in the final stages.
The podium was made up of Byrne, Laverty and Mossey, with Bridewell, Ellison and O'Halloran making up the top six.
Kiyonari had an impressive end to the race, finishing in seventh with Cooper, Smrz and Jessopp completing the top ten.
24.07.2016 - Big Ed
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