Shane Byrne got over his dislike of
Mallory Park long enough to score an eighth victory of the season in the latest round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.
Another successful day for the runaway championship leader, Byrne has now won eight of the 12 races this year and has finished second in the remaining four, results that give him a 97 point lead over Cal Crutchlow now.
Byrne's triumph came in the first race of the day and once again it was done on the back foot after coming together with Michael Laverty at the hairpin and very nearly coming off. Held up by the wall on the inside of the corner, Byrne simply set off back in pursuit.
Indeed, with the leading HM Plant Honda riders failing to capitalise on their provisional 1-2 position at the front of the field, Byrne quickly caught the leading group up before picking his way through the order.
The decisive moment came when Byrne got better drive out of the final corner with five laps remaining to sweep past Leon Haslam and complete a relatively comfortable win, much to his delight and surprise.
“Mallory Park has been one of the races that I was dreading,” he admitted to
Crash.net Radio. “Mallory is a fantastic venue and the crowds can get really close to the circuit, but I don't like the circuit with a passion. So, if I was being offered a win and a second place a week ago, I'd have probably bitten your hand off!
“I went for a gap that was there, but Michael kind of fell into me and wedged me up against the wall. If that hadn't been there then I might have had a problem, but I just dumped the clutch to get going and away we went again.
“We made sure we had a bike that would be quick towards the end of the race and, fortunately for me, the HM Plant guys weren't going overly fast. So I was able to find a pace that was good enough to catch up and pass them to take the win.”
