Kent’s Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne unfortunately had to sit out the opening round of the MCE British Superbike Championship at the weekend at Donington Park.

It was an unfortunate way for Byrne to get his title defence off and running, but having suffered from concussion in a warm-up crash on Sunday morning, it was the right call and the Kent based rider will be back on track at his home circuit, Brands Hatch over the Easter weekend.

After qualifying was cancelled due to track contamination yesterday, five times champion Byrne was set to start on row two of the grid and had just set the second fastest time on the factory-backed Be Wiser Ducati Panigale R during the 20-minute warm up session when he crashed heavily at Craner Curves. Following medical treatment, it was determined he had suffered concussion in the high-speed spill, which resulted in the BSB medical team advising him to take no further part in the day’s proceedings.

Speaking after the weekend, Shakey said: “It was disappointing to sit out the races today but I’ve been around racing long enough to know things like this happen. The good news is that nothing is broken and after a couple of day’s rest, I’ll be absolutely fine.

“The championship hasn’t been won today and there’s an awful lot more races that are there for us to win. I’m going off to Spain to relax and have a few days in the sun to recover and I intend to bounce back at Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks’ time.” 

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