Byrne ends six year Ducati drought

Ducati’s six year victory drought came to an end at Brands Hatch this afternoon as Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne stormed to a commanding first victory of the season.

Feeling confident all weekend, the four-time champion got a shocker of a start in the day’s first race leaving him 15^th after the first lap but a better start in the second outing saw him slip from fifth to eighth.

Latching on to the rear of the leading group, initially led by James Ellison before he was cruelly forced to retire with a technical issue. It wasn’t until the late stages of the race that Byrne began to make his move, passing Luke Mossey for third place with a hard move at Clearways. 

He then pulled carbon copy moves into the final turn on Haslam and Cooper to take the lead with two laps to go. 

Bridewell took a strong fourth place ahead of a resurgent Dan Linfoot, who managed to ge the better of his Honda team-mate Jason O’Halloran. Christian Iddon found a way around his front-end feeling problems to progress and take seventh ahead of Hickman, Easton and Mossey.

Leon Haslam now leads the championship by three points from Shane Byrne.