British Superbike, Round 10, Croft
Rizla Suzuki's Shane 'Shakey'
Byrne narrowly missed the rostrum on his
first Superbike visit to Croft in North
Yorkshire for the 10th round of the Bennetts
British Championship on Sunday, August 13,
2006.
Honda's Ryuichi Kiyonari won the opening
race and Ducati's Leon Haslam the second.
In a treacherously wet second race,
Shakey recovered from an uncharacteristic poor start and
an early run off the track to chase down the leaders. He
would have challenged for third if the race - which had
been shortened by two laps due to the weather - had run
its full distance. In the opening race, plagued by
drizzling rain on a dry track, he took fifth place.
Steve Plater, making his second
appearance for Rizla Suzuki as a stand-in for the
injured James Haydon, took impressive ninth and 11th
places from starting 19th on the grid.
Rizla Suzuki will attend the official
MCRCB test at Cadwell Park next Thursday, August 17th.
The team will then return to the Lincolnshire circuit
for the 11th round of the Championship on Bank Holiday
Monday, August 28th.
Brendan Roberts won the National Superstock Championship at Croft with three rounds to
spare on his Crescent supplied Suzuki GSX-R1000.
Shane Byrne: "In the second race my bike was mega and
I was smiling inside my helmet. If I hadn't made a
simple mistake and run off the track early on and lost a
lot of time rejoining, then I could have had a podium
finish.
"It's another weekend of finishing
fourth and fifth. That doesn't make me happy and I need
to break this run of being just behind the podium
results; it's not where I want to be and I should be
challenging for the wins."
Steve Plater: "I am starting to gel the Rizla Suzuki
and this weekend has been a big step forward. The
results are ok but what's more important is the progress
I have made with the bike. I am starting to understand
and exploit its performance.
"I am satisfied with the day's work,
especially in the second race when I had real confidence
in the bike and could ride aggressively - I hope I get
another chance to race it. Being part of Rizla Suzuki is
a great experience and I'm enjoying every minute of it."
"Congratulations to Suzuki's Brendan
Roberts on securing the National Superstock Championship
with three rounds to go. He has been the class of the
field and his victory shows just how good the production
based GSX-R1000 really is. His bike is almost identical
to the model you can buy in any authorized Suzuki
showroom and is the class of its field."
Race One Results: 1: Ryuichi Kiyonari
(Honda) 27:23.430, 2: Jonathan Rea (Honda) +0.947, 3:
Gregorio Lavilla (Ducati) +2.132, 4: Leon Haslam
(Ducati) +2.339, 5: Shane Byrne (Rizla Suzuki) +19.107,
6: Michael Rutter (Honda) +25.601, 7: Tommy Hill
(Yamaha) +37.520, 8: Craig Coxhell (Kawasaki) +38.093,
9: Steve Plater (Rizla Suzuki) +38.838, 10: Karl Harris
(Honda) +39.410.
Race Two Results: 1: Haslam 26:57.266,
2: Harris + 0.090, 3: Lavilla +13.712, 4: Shane Byrne
(Rizla Suzuki) +15.954, 5: Kiyonari +23.642, 6: Rutter
+25.553, 7: Michael Laverty (Honda) +26.782, 8: Peter
Hickman (Kawasaki) +43.486, 9: Glen Richards (Honda)
+45.633, 10: Coxhell +49.399. 11: Steve Plater (Rizla
Suzuki) +1:00.790.
Championship Positions (after 10 of 13
rounds): 1: Kiyonari 310, 2: Haslam 307, 3: Lavilla 292,
4: Shane Byrne (Rizla Suzuki) 198, 5: Rea 176, 6: Harris
175, 7: Laverty 139, 8: Rutter 138, 9: Hill 127, 10:
Richards 87. 16: James Haydon (Rizla Suzuki) 36. 17:
Steve Plater (Rizla Suzuki) 27.
