Ryuichi Kiyonari took one step closer to clinching the 2006 British Superbike crown in race one at
Brands Hatch, stretching out an 18 point lead over Leon Haslam as defending champion Gregorio Lavilla saw his hopes of retaining his title in tatters.
At the lights, though, it was ‘Shakey' Byrne who got the jump from fellow front row starter Johnny Rea, with pole-sitter Haslam down to third, Kiyonari up a place in fourth and Lavilla the biggest loser, slipping back to tenth. By the end of lap one the Spaniard would have recovered to eighth, but his problems at the start would prove to be symptomatic of a race that would all-but destroy his championship dreams.
Haslam and Kiyo had deposed Rea by the end of the opening tour, with Tommy Hill running fifth, Karl Harris sixth, Ben Wilson an impressive seventh and Michael Rutter – who had started the race on the front row of the grid – all the way down in tenth. The HM Plant Honda rider was the next man on the move, slicing past Hill to fifth, with Lavilla pulling off a similar manoeuvre on Wilson for seventh, but still a long way back on title rivals Haslam and Kiyonari.
Haslam stole the lead off Byrne on lap three, but his efforts were to come to nought as the race was red-flagged just seconds later due to the oncoming rain, allowing all the riders to change onto wet weather tyres but meaning the re-started order would be as at the beginning of the previous lap, with Byrne still in front and Haslam needing to do it all over again.
