Second place in race two was all that was required for Ryuichi Kiyonari to lift the 2006 British Superbike crown, as Leon Haslam's best was ultimately not quite enough.
With an 18 point deficit heading into the race, Haslam always knew he would be up against it, especially after Kiyo was given the added boost by being moved onto the front row of the grid alongside his championship rival following ‘Shakey' Byrne's failure to start.
With a huge hailstorm shortly before the off, the mounting tension around the GP circuit was palpable. As in race one Haslam failed to make the most of his pole position advantage, allowing Johnny Rea to get the jump before a feisty-looking Kiyo dived audaciously down the inside of the pair of them into Druids for the first time to prise the lead away.
Haslam recovered from his jittery start to reclaim second, but already his title chances were looking slim, with Rea third ahead of Karl Harris, Tommy Hill, a slow-starting Michael Rutter and Gregorio Lavilla.
Haslam soon reeled his HM Plant Honda rival back in, and had a look through Clearways only to think better of it. Already Lavilla's bid for glory was over though, the Spaniard pulling off on the opening lap with mechanical woes, a massive disappointment having headed into the weekend leading the championship.
The top two, meanwhile, were continuing to go at it hammer-and-tongs at the front, with Harris past Rea for third and no doubt keen to protect the back of his title-chasing team-mate up ahead. A momentary twitch from the race leader on lap five was all that was necessary for Haslam to sweep through, and with that he was gone. Kiyo, though, knew all he had to do was finish second and the crown would be his, especially with Harris – although closing – extremely unlikely to challenge behind.
