Shane Byrne was shaken but not stirred as he roared back from a 120mph crash at Brands Hatch to finish second in the final MCE British Superbike race at the weekend.

Race one was shaping up to be an excellent scrap between Shakey and Josh Brookes when he came off his bike at Hawthorns, leaving him bruised and battered.

The second race of the weekend was very much one that meant a lot to Byrne as he wanted to repay his PBM team for the work they did getting his bike ready to race, and he brought it home in second place.

Speaking after the weekend, he said: “My lap time that got pole in qualifying was not brilliant. I had a bit of a moment coming out of Sheene Curve, a big slide flicked my feet off the pegs just a tiny bit and got me all in a bit in a tangle, I just missed the apex at Stirlings so didn’t get the best of runs out of there.

“The last sector has been good for the bike this weekend and to lose that little bit was a bit disappointing, so I thought right, if that could be a 1m25.3s, then for sure I could go faster but I pushed the envelope just a little bit too much into Paddock the following lap and went a tiny bit wide and thought abort and then we’ll go again. I did another really good lap time but it was just a tenth off what I’d already done before and fortunately, there was plus 0.001s, but it was pole.

“In the first race I had a great start and lead for a few laps, however despite trying hard the lap times weren’t coming so I eased off and Josh came passed. That was perfect as it allowed me to sit back, relax and let him do the work at least that was the plan.

“I’d ridden the same style entering Hawthorn corner 40 or 50 times over the weekend and had no problems. When Josh passed me I thought, ‘that’s absolutely perfect’ because I didn’t want to be the guy out there setting the pace. I could see from my lap timer the pace wasn’t that fast for some reason although I was trying really hard. I sat there quite comfortably and then the next minute I was on my ear in the gravel. It’s such a fast place to crash, I got a bit of a hiding but we were able to come back.

“In race two I went out thinking of the team because the bike was a little bit second-hand after the crash and so was I. Fortunately my daughter gave me a little cuddle and she was like ‘come on daddy’ – like a get yourself together sort of thing!

“We went out and I made a few real big rookie mistakes. I messed about with the brake adjuster a little bit as the brakes were kind of coming back to me more than my liking. Usually the guys have a little arrow on there and for some reason, I had a complete and utter brain fade, but I kept adjusting the wrong way, so every time the brake was coming back to me, I’d adjust it and make the things worse.

“Josh eventually came past and he looked really settled and I had a few moments on the back of him and I thought I’ve had one sort of rapid get off, I could really do without another one! He was riding so smooth and so unflustered that I thought ‘fair play, you’ve beat me today’ and that’s how it is, its racing.

“If you could win every single race then you‘d be champion by whatever round, and it’s just not the case as it’s such a strong championship.

“I want to say a massive thank you to PBM Kawasaki for getting the bike rebuilt for me. A podium or a second position is a good finish, it’s not the ideal finish, but it’s as good as it was going to get this afternoon and the podium’s for my boys in my PBM team because they worked so hard and I’m sorry I smashed their bike to bits in the first one.”

Images courtesy of Jon Jessop Photography