News 26 Apr 2011

Byrne and Hill split wins at Brands Hatch BSB season opener

Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne and Tommy Hill split wins during Monday’s opening round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch Indy.

Byrne won the first race of the season on his return to Brands Hatch with the HM Plant Honda team in an incident-packed race as many of his rivals crashed out of contention.

Crashers included Australia’s Josh Brookes, rookie John Hopkins and Michael Laverty, that incident forcing the pace car to be deployed.

Brookes looked set to challenge for the win as he moved up to second, but the Relentless Suzuki rider suffered a nasty high-side on the exit of Paddock Hill Bend.

Byrne then went on to win his first BSB race since 2008 with Swan Yamaha’s Hill in second but on the final corner of the last lap Easton lost third place when he ran wide at Clark Curve, allowing Tommy Bridewell enough room to dive down the inside and reward the Tyco Honda team a podium finish.

“I didn’t have any excuses if I didn’t have a result today riding for the championship-winning team!” Byrne said. “It was a hectic race and I got a good start and then Michael’s crash happened in slow motion right in front of me and I was lucky that I managed to miss him.

“That incident then bunched us all up and then I had a fight with Stuart Easton but I knew I had to get past him as soon as possible. It’s fantastic to have won the first race of the season and I can’t wait for race two now.”

South Australian Glen Richards won the Mirror.co.uk BSB Evo race after a battle with team-mate Alex Lowes whilst Simon Andrews completed the podium line up.

Swan Yamaha scored the second race win of the weekend at Brands Hatch as Tommy Hill secured victory at his home round after holding off the challenges from the HM Plant Hondas of Kiyonari and Byrne.

Laverty took an impressive fourth place after his huge crash in the first race ahead of John Hopkins who had been embroiled in a battle with Stuart Easton for fifth place.

“It has been a long four days as it has been the most I have ridden for a while,” Hill said. “Last week I was concerned about my elbow and I had so much treatment throughout the week to be ready for here and it paid off.

“It is fantastic to be leading the championship but it is only round one and it is early days still. The bike has been working well and we couldn’t have asked for a better start today.

“We are now looking forward to Oulton Park and getting the bike to work around what is a completely different track. Hopefully we can get there and come away with a very similar result.”

In the Mirror.co.uk BSB Evo race Richards took a second victory of the day from teammate Lowes.

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