The King of Brands Hatch and the MCE British Superbike Championship Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne came away from Byrne’s Hatch clutching a sixth title.
Having gone into the weekend 33 points behind Championship leader Leon Haslam and a point behind second place Josh Brookes, it didn’t look like defending the title for Shakey was going to be an option.
However you should never write off the man who has now won round Brands Hatch GP circuit 21 times in the World and British Superbikes.
He was quickest all weekend, topping practice times and qualifying before taking the victory in race one to keep the title fight alive and into a final day.
With 58,000 people having arrived at the circuit across the weekend, they were treated to some spectacular racing.
With race two underway Shakey wasted no time in working his way to the front on Sunday lunchtime. No one was going to beat him in that race, as he managed the race well from the front and when Christian Iddon looked to be catching him, he upped the pace a little and pulled away.
With Haslam struggling in the race, and dropping back to seventh place it meant that anyone one of the three could win the title in a nail biting final race.
That race saw Brookes roar off at the front, knowing that he needed to win and hope for some help from his fellow riders.
Haslam just needed to finish in front of Byrne to take his first title, and the 5 time champ needed to finish in front of Byrne.
So it was nicely poised with Brookes our front and Shakey stalking Haslam who were P5 and P6. Then out of nowhere Haslam crashed out the back of the Grand Prix circuit pretty heavily, it was a sad end to his stellar campaign. It transpired that Haslam had suffered break failure and was forced to jump off the bike at 172 mph!! in the process breaking his left ankle, right wrist and right thumb.
It meant that Byrne only had to finish P11 or higher to take the title for the sixth time and defend the championship for the first time in his career.
Not wanting to put a foot wrong, he ended up coming home a comfortable P8 knowing that would be enough to celebrate making history once again.
The most remarkable moment come after the race when the JG Speedfit carried a broken and battered to the grid to congratulate Shane Byrne.
It was a fitting moment to see the two men who have battled hard all season embracing each other, before Haslam was carried to the medical car and taken to the medical centre and onwards to hospital for treatment on his broken ankle, wrist and thumb.
Leaving Shakey to celebrate with family, friends and thousands of adoring fans at his home circuit.
Speaking after an unbelievable achievement, he said: “I don’t really know how I feel to be honest because I came here thinking I’m 33 points behind Leon and he’s such a tough competitor that I never envisaged being able to pull back 33 points, but what I did envisage was coming here to do the best job I possibly could this weekend and try and win three races.“
“That’s never a given in BSB because it’s really, really difficult to win, but after we won the first race and pulled back some points and then there was only two points between us and I had a bit of a game plan for the final race of the day and that was to keep an eye on my pit board to see where Leon was and basically remain a place or two in front of him.
“That may sound a little bit arrogant or aloof but it was basically my way of making sure we came away from this weekend as champions.
“I knew he was starting on the fourth row and when he came past me on the start I thought “seriously, what sort of a start did you get?” but it was perfect because I was sat in fourth or fifth with Leon right in front of me and I felt absolutely cool with that because I knew towards the end of the race I’d be really strong.”
“I sat there quite content, trying not to use to much tyre and following him around making sure nobody was going past me, and then as we went down into Hawthorns Leon didn’t get on the brakes or whatever happened and jumped off his bike and it really threw me, I’m not going to lie. I spent a couple of laps afterwards thinking “hold on a minute, we are supposed to be fighting for a championship, we can’t fight for a championship if you’re in there”.
“I’m gutted for him, I genuinely mean that because he’s been a really tough competitor last year and this year, and for him to come here with 33 points lead and leading the championship seems a bitter pill to swallow.
“I hadn’t actually won a race since we were here in July and that never happens. BSB is so tough right now that it’s really, really difficult to win. We’ve ended up champions so I’m super, super happy to have defended the title. That’s the one thing I wanted to do and we’ve got that done now so it’s going to be a nice winter.
“Last night I went to bed after that first race and I was 14 points closer to this happening and all I kept thinking about was “what if it did, what if it’s me this weekend” and I barely slept a wink to be honest because I was so engrossed in scenarios and outcomes and plots and subplots.
“I’ll take a title in BSB however they come because they do not come on the back of Kelloggs’ Frosties packets!”
Pictures supplied by PSP Images.