Reigning MCE British Superbike Champion Shane 'Shakey' Byrne managed to shake his Cadwell Park jinx off when he scored a race one podium to maintain his championship challenge in front of a massive bank holiday crowd at the Lincolnshire track.
Aboard the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki ZX-10R, the Sittingbourne rider was hoping for better fortune than last year when he crashed out during practice and missed the races. That he did and the triple MCE BSB champion qualified for the weekend's races in a strong second place going into race one.
In glorious conditions, Byrne was dicing in the leading bunch throughout the opening race and sensibly settled for a close second place behind local hero Alex Lowes but any hopes of increasing his winning tally to ten victories for the season were scuppered in race two when a technical problem meant he could finish no higher than fourth place, just missing out on more valuable podium credits as again Lowes took the win.
Team-mate Keith Farmer was suffering from a mysterious bug which laid him low throughout the meeting on the Minxflix supported Paul Bird Motorsport Kawasaki ZX-10R. Despite that, the reigning Superstock 1000 champion from Clogher, Co Tyrone qualified in eighth place and went on to finish in a brave ninth place in race one before the medical team at Cadwell Park deemed him too unwell to take part in the second race so as a result, he had to sit that one out.
Byrne's lead in the championship stands at 37 points but in the all-important Podium Credits department, he now has a slender eight point advantage over Lowes going into the final race before the Showdown at Donington Park in two weeks time.
Shane Byrne: "I've never had much luck at Cadwell Park but to even get to race this year was a bonus after what happened last year. I was happy enough with the pace in the opening race but we tried a change for race two and it simply didn't work so I'm a little frustrated to concede some ground to Alex this weekend. We will check the data to find out what we need to do as I really need to maximise my advantage at Donington Park before the Showdown starts."
Keith Farmer: "It's been a tough week for me this past week with being run down and lack of sleep. I had a tough start to the weekend with struggling to find my feet, but with a tow from Shakey in qualifying I found my form and felt comfortable again. The first race was a struggle with me not feeling so well and I managed a ninth but it was hard. I was deemed unfit to ride for race two, as annoying as it was, but it was the right decision as I don't think I would have managed to complete the race. Hopefully, I'll be much stronger at Donington Park in a couple of weeks."
Paul Bird, Team Owner: "You can't win them all and it wasn't to be our weekend here at Cadwell. Shakey rode a sensible race and kept out of trouble in race one but he had a problem in race two which handicapped him. But at least he didn't crash unlike some of his rivals and still has a good lead in the championship. Keith has been quite poorly so fair play to him for giving it a go in race one but hopefully he'll bounce back at Donington."
MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship Cadwell Park Race 1:1. Alex Lowes (Honda)2. Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)3. Josh Brookes (Suzuki)4. Tommy Bridewell (Kawasaki)5. PJ Jacobsen (Suzuki)6. Chris Walker (Kawasaki)9. Keith Farmer (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)
MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship Cadwell Park Race 2:1. Alex Lowes (Honda)2. Tommy Bridewell (Kawasaki)3. James Ellison (Yamaha)4. Shane Byrne (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)5. Ryuichi Kiyonari (Honda)6. Chris Walker (Kawasaki)DNS: Keith Farmer (Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki)
Championship Positions after round 81. Shane Byrne 3302. Alex Lowes 2933. Josh Brookes 2844. James Ellison 1745. Ryuichi Kiyonari 1626. Jon Kirkham 135 11 Keith Farmer 93
