Rizla Suzuki: Two races... five falls!

Rizla Suzuki riders Shane Byrne and James Haydon fell a total of five times during Sunday's rain hit races at Donington Park, venue for round two of the 2006 Bennetts British Superbike Championship.

In the first race, Byrne was fourth and Haydon ninth when rain and hail suddenly descended - sending James tumbling at the Old Hairpin.

"The rain started to pour down and going into the Old Hairpin the back end slid away," confirmed James. "I held it for what seemed like forever before it high-sided and I crashed out. It was a real shame because I was enjoying the race and the bike was handling better than ever."

Meanwhile, just a minute later, team-mate Shakey suffered a massive 140mph high-side - but with the race red flagged and taken back a lap, he was still awarded fifth place in the final results.

"I suffered one of the biggest crashes of my career flat out in fifth gear going through the Schwantz curve," said Byrne afterwards. "It had started to rain and the back end of the bike just came round and I went flying. It was a big crash and I am well bruised after that. The only consolation is that I was awarded fifth place."

However, the soaking wet second race saw even more drama for the Rizla riders - with Byrne embarrassingly crashing out on the warm-up lap!

"I went into Coppice on a closed throttle nice and steady on my out lap. The back end came round in slow motion and I couldn't do anything about it and crashed out. I didn't have a spare bike for race two after my first race crash and that was unfortunately the end of the day for me," he said.

Haydon lasted longer - and made a brilliant start - climbing from eighth to second, but then went straight-on through the Craner Curves, rejoining well down the field. The Briton then crashed at Goddards on lap 2, but was able to remount his GSX-R1000... only to fall for the final time, on lap nine, at McCleans.

"The wet and slippery conditions caught me out twice," confirmed Haydon. "The first time I remounted and was cutting back through the field towards the front when I crashed again and this time I couldn't get restarted. It's been a tough weekend and I hope the next round at Thruxton is dry."