BSB: Byrne overcomes difficulties at Snetterton test

Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne was able to make headway with the Be Wiser Ducati despite a tough start to this week’s Snetterton test.

Confident of a step forward after taking victory last time out, Byrne was surprised with how his Panigale reacted to the Snetterton 300 circuit. Initially only scheduled to test on Thursday, Byrne went out for some extra track time in Wednesday’s final session and found the Panigale didn’t behave quite as he expected.

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The four-time champion has struggled to find a base setting for the booming V-Twin that acts as a starting point for each circuit, instead finding they have to essentially start from scratch at each new track. Once he’d got some laps under his belt, he was instantly on the pace and thinks he could have been quicker had it not been for a crash in Thursday’s opening session.

“Every time we come to a different circuit with this bike we don’t know how it will behave,” he explained. “It’s not like with the Kawasaki where I knew exactly how many revs I needed at certain points of the track, we’re still learning with the Panigale. I got here half way through the first day and the bike wasn’t as I expected it to be.”

“We worked hard in the opening sessions on Thursday and made progress, I was on for my fastest lap of the day when I crashed because another rider cut in front of me and then again, when I put new tyres in for what turned out to be the final session for us, the red flag came out!” 

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