Wednesday, May 18 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
‘Shakey’ Byrne will start from pole position for tomorrow’s opening race at Croft at the third round of the British Superbike Championship, following an impressive qualifying session in mixed conditions this afternoon.
Shakey had been fastest in the final free practice session this morning and after running inside the top five he went on to claim his second pole position of the season at title sponsor, HM Plant’s, home round. Ryuichi Kiyonari and the team have continued to work hard with set up and throughout the weekend the double champion has been improving, but this afternoon he had to settle for a fourth row start in 14th position. However the HM Plant Honda team is seeking further improvement before tomorrow’s two races.
In the National Superstock 1000 Championship Jason O’Halloran had a strong start to qualifying but in the closing stages was nudged down the order and he will start from the second row in sixth place. Jason is feeling confident though of further improvement ahead of the race tomorrow as he bids for his first win of the season.
Shakey said: “It was a difficult qualifying session with the changing conditions and that final Q3 is critical for the first race tomorrow. It rained and then it passed and I just went out there and was behind Linfoot and he was pushing so I used him as a bit of a gauge as to the conditions so thanks to him! I was able to pass him and pushed as hard as I thought was possible in the changing conditions; I stayed upright and lucky for me it was enough for pole. This is a big round for HM Plant and so I am really happy that I could secure the pole position for them for tomorrow’s first race.”
Kiyo said: “It has been another hard day but we are improving our speed and I am faster than yesterday. Each session we have improved but at the moment it is still not enough as all the other riders have too. The HM Plant Honda team is working hard tonight and we will again tomorrow morning in warm up to try and improve again to see if we can be faster for the race.”
Jason said: “It has been a tough day; we have just been working through some settings for the race tomorrow so we have focused on that today rather than just a fast qualifying lap. I was disappointed to have got bumped off the front row at the end, but tomorrow is another day and we will be ready to race that’s for sure.”
Team Manager Havier Beltran concluded: “On the one hand we are delighted for Shakey to be starting from pole position for the first race tomorrow at HM Plant’s home round. On the other it is disappointing where we are with Kiyo; we all know he has the ability but we need to resolve the issues he has and then we know he has the potential of a strong race performance tomorrow. In the Superstock class Jason is disappointed to not be starting from the front row, but he is a good racer and we will give him the best package we can to challenge tomorrow. We know that the weather will play a big part in the events tomorrow, so we will be working hard to put the HM Plant Honda Fireblade back on the podium.”
