Source: BSB.

Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne delivered a reminder to his rivals that he intends to return to winning ways in the fourth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship and regain the lead in the title stakes at Snetterton this weekend.

The PBM Kawasaki rider upped the pace to run inside the lap record with a time of 1m47.664s in the afternoon session to finally break the challenge of Milwaukee Yamaha’s Josh Brookes as the pair went head-to-head in an intense battle for the top throughout the two opening sessions.

Byrne admits he has had a difficult start to the defence of his record fourth crown. He started the season carrying an injury and has only scored a single victory back in April, and crashed out at the previous round with Ryuichi Kiyonari.

Shakey scored a double victory at the Norfolk circuit last season and now has his sights set on closing the eight points deficit to the current series leader James Ellison.

Ellison on the JG Speedfit Kawasaki rider was third fastest and 0.566s adrift of Byrne at the top, but Be Wiser Kawasaki’s Chris Walker was also closing and the four times runner-up in the series held fourth position ahead of the second Milwaukee Yamaha of Broc Parkes.

Howie Mainwaring made his return to the top ten in sixth place after pushing ahead of Czech rider Jakub Smrz who held seventh position on the Lloyds British MotoRapido Ducati after pushing ahead of Stuart Easton and Jason O’Halloran on the leading Honda Racing Fireblade.

Bennetts Suzuki’s Christian Iddon completed a top ten featuring five different manufacturers and eight different teams, whilst Ryuichi Kiyonari dropped to 1th after suffering a technical problem during the session with the Buildbase BMW that limited his track time, before getting back on the pace later in the session.

Smiths Racing BMW’s Billy McConnell was further down the order in 22nd, while Josh Waters (Bennetts Suzuki) was two positions further back in 24th, and Jed Metcher (PR Racing Kawasaki) finished day one 29th.

In Supersport Levi Day was fourth of the Evo entries in 14th overall, while David Johnson was seventh in the opening Superstock 1000 qualifying and Benjamin Currie third in Superstock 600.

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