Meanwhile, Byrne was a man on a mission and a series of quick laps saw him quickly into the top ten. Indeed, by lap seven, the Ducati man was back into the top five after he passed team-mate Camier at Lodge and another fastest lap on lap eight – this time quicker than he managed in qualifying – enabled him to close onto the rear of Ellison in the fight for fourth.
On lap ten, Byrne made his move at Island to go fourth but within a lap, he was up into second place after a controversial coming together between Haslam and Sykes at Hizzies. Haslam tried to go down the inside of the Rizla Suzuki man into the right hander but when Sykes then took his line into the corner, the resulting contact saw the Suzuki go down and led to Haslam taking a trip over the grass to drop down to fifth.
It moved Crutchlow into the lead of the race ahead of Byrne, Ellison and Camier but a lap later, Byrne had hit the front after making a move at Island similar to the one he had pulled on Ellison a couple of laps earlier. Further down the top ten, lap twelve saw the demise of Karl Harris, whose miserable start to the season continued as he ended his race in the tyre wall at Druids for the second time.
A lap later, the race took its final dramatic twist when Crutchlow followed Harris in going off at Druids. With the HM Plant man picking up an ankle injury in the fall, and with Steve Mercer and Dean Ellison also having gone off earlier in the lap, the red flag was thrown and the result declared with Byrne ahead of Ellison and Camier.
Haslam was classed in fourth ahead of Michael Laverty and Stuart Easton, with Michael Rutter seventh and Simon Andrews rounding out the top eight.
In the Cup Class, victory went to John Laverty ahead of Luke Quigley and Chris Burns.
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