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Pupil beats the master as Shane Byrne finishes third at Knockhill

Shane Byrne was beaten by the man he used to mentor in the latest round of the British Superbike Championship.

Kent rider Byrne managed Jake Dixon for two seasons and clearly did a good job as the youngster won both races at Knockhill, in Scotland, on Sunday.

Five-time champion Byrne left with a pair of third-placed finishes and sits third in the standings on 90 points, behind leader Luke Mossey (141) and Leon Haslam (111), who missed the meeting through injury after a heavy crash in free practice.

Shane Byrne celebrates another podium finish at Knockhill Picture: Camipix
Shane Byrne celebrates another podium finish at Knockhill Picture: Camipix

Byrne, who qualified fourth, didn’t get a great start in the opening race and after a physical first lap, he found himself back in eighth.

He regrouped over the next few laps and by lap seven he was up into fourth before moving up to third at half race distance.

Despite being under constant pressure, he held on to take a podium finish and, equally important, another podium credit.

The Sittingbourne rider started the second race from fifth place and with a better start held on to that position in the early stages before moving up to third.

Byrne dropped to fourth in the latter stages but with a concerted effort made it up to third at the chequered flag to claim his second podium of the weekend.

He said: "We came here looking for two strong results and whilst we've all worked incredibly hard as a team to get the results we've got, it hasn't been the greatest of weekends.

"We changed the Shane Byrne bike massively for race one and at the end of the day, we've salvaged two podiums so it certainly hasn't been the worst case scenario either.

"We've got some good circuits coming up with Snetterton, the Brands GP circuit and Thruxton, ones I really like and should suit the bike, so I'm looking forward to getting to those now."

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