Shane Byrne was made to work hard on Sunday in the latest round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship from Knockhill.

It was somewhat of a surprise that Shakey was pressured from the off not by Josh Brookes but by a resurgent Ryuichi Kiyonari.

In the first race of the day Kiyonari took the chequered flag but it was a fantastic battle between the two, three time champions. In the second race it was a complete role reversal with Byrne taking the victory.

Shane has now won six of the eight races so far this season, taking is personal tally to 57 victories in the BSB, and he has a 79 point lead in the championship going into the next round at Brands Hatch.

Race one saw an uncharacteristic error, normally the 37-year-old is lightening from the start line but this time he was slow off the line and he found himself behind Kiyo and Brookes. He made up for it though and was soon past Brookes and challenging Kiyo for the lead.

The second race was just as exciting for Byrne, he took the lead at the first corner and had Kiyo all over him for much of the 30 lap race. He was able to hold off his charging adversary thanks to some mistakes and great riding from the Kent man to take the flag.

Speaking after the race a delighted Byrne, said: “I threw the first race away at the beginning as I wasn’t watching the lights properly meaning everyone had gone so it left me a lot of work to do.”

“I got up to second and pushed hard for a few laps but the gap to Kiyo stayed constant and fair play to him for setting such a hard, fast pace so I decided to bring the bike home for second as it would have been too risky to push any harder.

“Kiyo was the man to beat all weekend as he was so consistent but I made a great start in the second race and although he briefly got by me, he made a mistake the lap after and I just went for it.”

“We’ve struggled a bit all weekend as I’ve been chasing a good set-up with the front end so full credit to the team as we changed things again for the second race and, hopefully, that win repays them for all their hard work. ”

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