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On the track with British Superbike champion Shane Byrne

Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne from Sittingbourne speaks to FUCHS SILKOLENE, one of the main partners of the five-time British Superbike champion.

It’s fair to say I didn’t see the Thruxton disappointment coming.

All of my pre-race talk was about how Thruxton suits the bike, how we did well there last year and how I wanted to amass as many podium credits as possible.

Shane Byrne in action Picture: Simon Hildrew
Shane Byrne in action Picture: Simon Hildrew

Well, it turned out to be one of the worst weekends we’ve had with the Ducati.

I still don’t know what the problem was, we just couldn’t get the bike to grip on the corners and that meant we lost all of our speed.

The strange thing was that in sections one and two my average pace was 1.13.8 – that’s quicker than last year. We just couldn’t get it right for the third section.

In the end we resorted to running the bike with last year’s set-up. That led to us being fastest in warm-up but even then it was obvious to me that there was work to be done.

The one tyre was just not running right.

The first race I came home a disappointing fourth but I felt strong in the second and was leading when, all of a sudden, the back tyre started rattling and vibrating and trying to pitch me off.

I had to pull up, which is not something I’ve really had to do in my career.

My team-mate Glenn Irwin had four or five tyre problems over the weekend.

I had just the one but it came at an important part of race two. It’s just one of those things that can happen in racing.

I try to look at everything in a positive light and the big thing to take from Thruxton is that I only lost one podium point to my main rival, Leon Haslam.

We have two meetings now before the Showdown so I’ll be looking to give myself the biggest advantage I can.

It’s a little ironic that they plan Cadwell Park immediately after Thruxton.

Thruxton is wide and sprawling, whereas Cadwell is probably half as wide, tight and swooping. It’s a busy track and difficult.

That said, it’s a special place and a big weekend for British Superbikes.

It’s the best-attended round of the season and everyone loves racing in the shadow of the mountain, so it’s exciting.

We were fast at Cadwell when we tested there a few weeks back.

We just need to turn things around and get back to the winning mentality.

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