Byrne beats Rea on penalties.

It wasn't decided by a penalty shootout in the football sense, but the final podium position in race two at Oulton Park was eventually given to Shane Byrne after both the Rizla Suzuki rider and Jonathan Rea were given post-race penalties for a last lap incident.

As the pair approached Hizzy's Chicane, Byrne and Rea were roughly side-by-side, but made light contact just before the turn-in point and neither rider made the chicane - Rea missing out the most amount of track as he cut almost straight across the grass and rejoined ahead of Shakey.

shane byrne rizla suzuki bsb 2006 race 2 oulton park monday 01/05/06
shane byrne rizla suzuki bsb 2006 race 2 oulton park monday 01/05/06
© Paul Sturman

It wasn't decided by a penalty shootout in the football sense, but the final podium position in race two at Oulton Park was eventually given to Shane Byrne after both the Rizla Suzuki rider and Jonathan Rea were given post-race penalties for a last lap incident.

As the pair approached Hizzy's Chicane, Byrne and Rea were roughly side-by-side, but made light contact just before the turn-in point and neither rider made the chicane - Rea missing out the most amount of track as he cut almost straight across the grass and rejoined ahead of Shakey.

The Red Bull Honda rider felt that he was in front before the incident and so had gained no advantage by keeping the position after it, while Byrne - and more importantly race control - felt that Rea had only held onto third by cutting across the grass.

Rea was later penalised by two seconds and Byrne penalised by one second, meaning that Rea was demoted to fourth - denying him the accolade of becoming the youngest-ever rider to claim a BSB rostrum.

" 'My side of things?' You lot are trying to create a bit of friction!" joked Rea, when asked by Crash.net Radio about the incident. "No, at the end of the day me and Shakey touched on the way into the chicane. The way I see it I was in the lead, we went straight across the grass and I came out leading. Then I kept going to the finish, crossed the line third - which felt pretty good - but the race director has seen it in a different way. It's racing; these things are going to happen... Shakey knows what happened and I know what happened, so I think that's all that needs to be said."

"Of course I'm a little disappointed. For me, I stood on the podium and didn't get the third place, but also for Shakey - he didn't stand on the podium but got it. I'm sure we're both happy and both disappointed at the same time," he added. "To be honest, when I stood on the podium with the third place - it felt good - but at the end of the day nothing is going to beat a win. That day's going to be a special one."

Byrne wasn't available for interview due to a stomach bug that left him barely strong enough to stand but - despite requiring a saline drip before the first race - the former MotoGP star had still produced his best results of the season so far; leading race one before finishing just half a second behind Gregorio Lavilla, for his and Rizla Suzuki's first podium of the year, then being awarded the post-race third.

With Byrne recovering, Rizla Suzuki press and marketing officer Jason McClean relayed Shakey's version of the incident:

"I've spoken with Shane; he said he'd just come out of the chicane and Johnny Rea had a big moment as they came over the brow of the hill," McClean told Crash.net Radio. "Shane had got past him and, as they were coming into the chicane, Shane was definitely ahead. Johnny moved into him and they touched, both then went off the circuit. The long and short of it was that Johnny missed the corner, went straight on and finished third, while Shane completed the corner and was fourth across the line.

"All credit to Johnny Rea, there was an investigation into it, (Rea and Red Bull Honda) looked at the footage on screen and they didn't protest it at all - they accepted the penalty. Massive respect to Johnny Rea for doing that, he's been very sportsmanlike - so has Shane - they've both shaken hands and I think we're going to see the pair of them fighting for more podiums soon."

"Shane's been riding really well this weekend, but I'm sure your listeners know that he's had a very serious stomach bug," added Jason. "He's been on a saline drip for the last two days - hasn't been able to eat, hasn't been able to sleep. So he's been very weak physically and unfortunately that's probably held him back. He and the team felt he had the pace to challenge for race wins today - as he showed in race one - but in race two the poor lad was exhausted and third was the best he was going to get.

"But both guys (Byrne and team-mate James Haydon) have been riding fast and consistent and I think we're shown this weekend that we can take the fight to the Ducatis," he concluded.

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