Snetterton British Superbikes: Shane Byrne leads second Airwaves Ducati 1-2 in the wet

Shane Byrne has taken his seventh victory of the season in race two at Snetterton this afternoon.

The Airwaves Ducati boys of Byrne and team-mate Leon Camier made it the perfect birthday for team manager Colin Wright as they recorded a double one-two for the team with Camier second in race two.

HM Plant Honda’s Cal Crutchlow continued his good form as he took the final podium spot on the CBR1000RR Fireblade.

A downpour just as the riders were heading out on to the grid saw confusion in the garages as to what tyres to put on the motorcycles and there was a mixture of full wets and intermediates taking to the Norfolk circuit.

As the rain continued to fall organisers MCRCB decided to bring the riders and their motorcycles back to the garages to wait until the rain had stopped. And after an hour’s delay, the race started but at a shorter distance of 15 laps down from 21 laps.

Scott Smart slid off at the first corner, having been a pre-race favourite in the wet conditions, but it was Leon Camier up front ahead of another wet weather specialist Karl Harris in second.

But Harris was the next to go down and also brought Shane Byrne to a stop as his Yamaha R1 was in the way of Shakey’s path, this left Byrne down in 13th.

Going in to lap two Camier was leading from North West 200 Ducati’s Michael Rutter with double race winner of the season Cal Crutchlow in third. On lap three Rutter had gone down to fourth pushing Crutchlow up to second and his team-mate Leon Haslam was in third.

Byrne was on the charge to get his places back and on lap three took Tom Sykes and Rutter in consecutive corners to move up to fourth.

By the end of lap five Camier was 2.471secs ahead o Crutchlow as he looked for his second BSB victory on the Airwaves Ducati 1098R. Guy Martin’s bad luck from the Isle of Man TT continued as he retired from the race, just as he did in race one, with mechanical problems.

By lap eight, Leon Haslam had Byrne all over the back of his exhaust pipe and it was only a matter of time before Shakey took third, and so he did on lap nine. On lap ten Byrne posted the fastest lap on the Airwaves Ducati with a 1:12.971 and was visibly catching Camier and Crutchlow.

On lap 12 Byrne was up to second and was set to make it an Airwaves Ducati one-two once again. Byrne was going quicker by the lap and after posting a 1:12.654 he was then set upon getting the lead and passed his team-mate Leon Camier on the penultimate lap.

And Shakey hung on for the final lap to take his seventh win of the season ahead of Camier, while Crutchlow held on for the final podium spot.

After the race, winner Shane Byrne said: “All credit to Airwaves ducati because they gave me a great bike. The only thing I was pleased with was mot having Tom Sykes in front of me then Karl Harris had a high side and I had to stop so I didn’t run over him.

“Fortunately the guys hadn’t got that far away and I thought I can still win this.

“I was really pleased for Leon (Camier) in the first race and it’s an Airwaves ducati one-two in both races so I couldn’t be happier.”

Gary Mason took his second British superbike Cup win of the day and had an even better second race, finishing 12th overall, two places higher than race one.

Shane Byrne’s lead in the championship has extended again and he now lead his team-mate Camier by 83 points after he overtook now third placed Cal Crutchlow.

Snetterton British Superbike race two top ten results:

1 Shane Byrne Airwaves Ducati
2 Leon Camier Airwaves Ducati
3 Cal Crutchlow HM Plant Honda
4 Michael Rutter North West 200 Ducati
5 Leon Haslam HM Plant Honda
6 Michael Laverty Relentless Suzuki
7 Tom Sykes Rizla Suzuki
8 Simon Andrews Jentin Racing Yamaha
9 Tristan Palmer Tena for Men Honda
10 James Ellison Hydrex Bike Animal Honda