The MCE British Superbike championship roared back to life at Silverstone at the weekend.

Kent’s Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne was once again flying the flag for Kent, in his quest for a fifth title. Now on Ducati machinery he finished second in race one and second in race two, after a fantastic last lap battle with Peter Hickman.

It was clear to see though that there is a lot more to come from the Ducati as it develops on as the season goes on, but he will be more than satisfied with two podium finishes in the first weekend of the season.

Aylesford’s Howie Mainwaring was on board the Smith’s Racing BMW for 2016, finishing 18th in race one and improving by one position with 17th in race two.

There is also a new team on the grid with 2011 champion Tommy Hill having entered his own Yamaha team, with John Hopkins and Stuart Easton on board. In race one Hopkins finished in 9th place with Easton unfortunately retiring. In race two both bikes failed to finish to put a bit of a dampener on the opening weekend.

There was once again good entertainment on offer in the support classes. With the Supersport race on Saturday abandoned to hopefully take place later in the season.

The Supersport race on Sunday saw Ross Twyman on his debut in the series coming home in 4^th place, showing that he has talent. Ryan Dixon from Folkestone was also to do well, coming home in 15^th to take the final point.

Canterbury’s Tom Ward showed his talent in the Supersport 600 coming from the back of the grid to finish in the top ten in 8th place, with Wayne Ryan just one place behind in 9^th place.

In the Superstock 1000, Rob McNealy got his season underway with a 14th place finished, in what is a talented series this year. Unfortunately for Alex Olsen from Cooling he didn’t finish the race having only managed five laps.

The season now move on to Oulton Park and it will be all to play for as we still don’t know who is going to be the main challengers in the 2016 season.

Images courtesy of www.psp-images.co.uk