British Superbike title contender Shane Byrne dominated the
Silverstone 200 support races at the British
MotoGP for the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki team.
'Shakey' was a comprehensive winner of both races on the
MotoGP undercard, although he was made to work hard for victory in Saturday's race in particular.
Byrne had qualified on pole, but as the rain began to fall, both he and team-mate Stuart Easton missed the pit lane closing slot as they changed tyres.
The pair were forced to start form the rear of the grid, but it made little difference to the outcome as Byrne soon charged through the field to wrap up a comfortable win in the reduced nine-lap race.
Easton was in contention for a rostrum finish when he crashed out after six laps in an incident that caused the race to be red-flagged.
The Scot suffered knee ligament damage and was ruled out of Sunday's second race, in which Byrne blitzed the opposition to score his second win of the weekend in front of more than 65,000 fans.
“The main idea was to use the meeting as a test and get some serious mileage and although the weather did its best to cause us problems, it has been a very worthwhile exercise for us,” said Byrne.
“We were a bit off the pace I need to be at to be winning
BSB races round here but it's hard to know how hard to push with a 35 second lead!
“It's a shame Stuart crashed out otherwise we could have had even more success but now I'm looking forward to
Knockhill and getting back to
BSB action.”