Shane Byrne wins twice on new Pirelli Superbike rear at Knockhill

Shane “Shakey” Byrne rode his Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki to two victories over Tyco Suzuki’s Josh Brookes this weekend at Knockhil, as British Superbike tyre supplier Pirelli ran its new for 2013 SC1 Diablo Superbike rear tyre. In qualifying with a 48.333 second lap for pole position Byrne beat his young rival Brookes by just 0.010 seconds. Brookes managed to set the fastest race lap too, at 48.769 seconds, and Pirelli has pointed out that this was achieved on the new SC1 rear tyre on the penultimate 29th lap – a statistic that speaks highly of the tyre’s durable performance.

Pirelli racing manager, Jason Griffiths commented, “It was certainly a weekend of contrast as far as track temperature was concerned. The 17 degrees track temp for qualifying saw a blisteringly fast lap from Shane Byrne to take pole. Race day provided a 33 degree track temp but the SC1 rears remained very consistent over race distance as Josh demonstrated by recording the fastest lap on lap 29. The SC0 Diablo Supercorsa was used by the full podium in the feature Supersport race as the riders benefitted from its increased grip level.”

Rain during the practice days necessitated the use of Diablo ‘Rain’ tyres, Pirelli said, while the race day stayed dry enough for the Diablo Superbike slick rubber. The relatively tight, short circuit layout saw all Superbike class riders use the new for 2013 SC1 Diablo Superbike rear tyre. The vast majority of riders also used the softer SC1 front tyre with the exception of Kirkham, Westmoreland and Hickman who opted for the SC2.  

The first race highlighted the title rivalry of Byrne, Brookes and Alex Lowes, while a rejuvenated Ryuichi Kiyonari also performed well. Proving his speed had not diminished, Josh Brookes set off in the lead with the close attentions of Byrne throughout the 30 lap race. Lowes caught the leading duo but unfortunately crashed out on lap 15 as he exited the always tricky Real Radio hairpin. 

After a race long waiting brief, Shakey finally made a lunge past Brookes into the hairpin on lap 25 but was immediately retaken by the Australian who held a tighter line. Byrne repeated the move on the next lap and made it stick, before pulling out a small but significant lead. Kiyonari took a popular third place, whilst Jon Kirkham crashed out of what would have been an impressive fourth position. Lowes set the fastest lap of the race before his accident to secure pole position for race two from Brookes and Kiyonari.  

Shakey started the second outing from row two but didn’t let that him stop forging his way into an early lead from Lowes. Brookes forced his way past Lowes to try and bridge the two second gap to Byrne. The hard riding Brookes nearly succeeded as the gap came down to half a second and he logged the fastest lap of the weekend on the penultimate lap. However it was too late to stop Byrne taking an eleventh career BSB double. Kiyonari completed his rehabilitation of form by taking a second podium after he overtook his young Samsung Honda teammate Lowes. 

Byrne’s perfect weekend of pole position, wins and re-taking the series lead was topped off with the Flying Haggis Award for his fastest lap in qualifying, given in tribute to the late, great local hero Steve Hislop who passed away ten years ago. The next round of the BSB takes place at Snetterton on 6-7 July.