Shane Byrne held off the challenge of Leon Haslam to secure victory in the opening race for the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at
Oulton Park after Cal Crutchlow threw away his chance of a second consecutive win in 2008.
In tricky conditions at the Cheshire venue, Byrne prevailed by less than half a second after 18 laps of hard racing to pick up his second victory of the season having also won the opening race last time out at
Thruxton.
With light rain falling as the race got underway, it was little surprise to see an incident at Old Hall on lap one, and with a number of riders going down the red flag was thrown and the field returned to the pits – where the riders were able to switch to a wet set-up as conditions worsened.
When the field took the start for the second time, it was Leon Haslam who took the lead into Old Hall but not for long as he then lost out to Rizla's Tom Sykes heading down towards Cascades. Haslam also lost out to Cal Crutchlow before lap one was complete as the poleman found a way past into Hizzies to take second, with Haslam down to third from Byrne, Leon Camier and Karl Harris.
Haslam was soon under attack from Byrne and having looked down the inside into Old Hall at the start of lap two, the Airwaves man then took the place after diving down the inside into Shell Oils. Seemingly struggling in the early stages, Haslam then found Camier closing quickly onto the rear of his HM Plant Honda.
Out front, Crutchlow was with Sykes in the fight for the lead and took the place going into Lodge. However, having gone down the inside, Crutchlow saw the back end of the bike kick out which enabled Sykes to come back at him up Deer Leap and retake the lead as they crossed the line.
