Shakey’s Spanish test

Stobart Honda stars Shane Byrne and Tom Sykes have wrapped up a three-day test in Spain, as they get stuck into the task of trying to wrest the British Superbike title from Honda’s official HRC team.

With Byrne’s major complaint last year with Rizla Suzuki being the lack of pre-season testing, barely a week after signing with the Stobart team for ’07 he was riding at Cartagena, racking up miles on the bikes the team used this year to get a basic feel for the bike with new ’07 machines due in the new year.

Byrne and Sykes both posted over 500 miles of laps in mostly dry conditions, and Byrne said: “The bike feels great. It’s much less top-endy than the GSX-R, with much more torque and a flatter power delivery. We tested lots of electronics and clutches, and we are all feeling really upbeat and pleased with the progress.”

Byrne won his 2003 BSB title with the team, then MonsterMob Ducati, and said: “It’s like I’ve never left the team. As soon as we got going, it was like I’d never been away. There is a great feeling in the team, and it is just the same buzz as when we won the title.”