Shane Byrne admits he is a little disappointed not to have the opportunity to compete in the forthcoming British rounds of the World Superbike Championship because he believes, unlike team manager Colin Wright, that the Airwaves Ducati would be have been competitive.
As the runaway championship leaders of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, there was a strong assumption that GSE Racing, former WSBK competitors, would acquire a wild-card for the races at
Brands Hatch and
Donington Park.
However, the decision was taken to sit the events out as Wright was not convinced the team would be fast enough once they had completed all the necessary modifications required to compete on the world stage.
“We would have loved to have competed at Brands Hatch or Donington Park, but we don't have the engines available,” Wright told
Crash.net Radio. “It would have taken a major change to the engines to fit with the Superbike rules, because our engines are not as quick as the Wold Superbike engines.
“There would be little point in taking part if we weren't competitive. If we were confident of a good result, then we could have gone. I can already here people saying ‘you don't want to go because you won't win', but they are right. We want to go out and win and we wouldn't be able to do that with the current engine specification that we've got.”
For Byrne, it would have been the opportunity to rekindle the memories of his double World Superbike win as a wild-card back in 2003. Nonetheless, while the BSB leader admits he would love to be out there, he is satisfied with the reasons behind not going.
“It would have been fantastic to get out there and have a ride with the other guys to see where we are at. The team are definitely capable of competing at a world level, and I like to think I am too, but it isn't to be, so we'll just have to kick back and watching it all on TV instead.”
