BSB: Byrne: 'It's far from over'

Published: 20 September 2017

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Shane Byrne has said the 2017 title fight ‘is not over’ despite having lost 23-points to rival Leon Haslam at Oulton Park this weekend.

The five-time champ struggled to find his feet on Friday but it looked like he’d found something come qualifying as he stormed to second on the grid. However, it’d all go wrong as he suffered with a failure with his visor’s anti-fog pinlock meaning he’d endure extremely limited visibility in the wet opening race.

Going on to finish tenth, his worst finish of the season, Byrne would have to fight through from the fourth row in the second race and while he had the pace, he admits he perhaps tried too hard and lost ground due to mistakes in the closing stages.

“The first race was really frustrating for me as there was absolutely nothing I could have done about it,” he told MCN. “I felt really confident in the wet, the bike felt perfect in the wet and in the second race it was always going to be hard coming from that far back. I knew all I could do was give it 110% and I probably gave it 115% and sometimes you can try too hard and make mistakes and end up going backwards.”

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The result marks the continuation of a challenging run of rounds for Byrne, who hasn’t won a race since he dominated at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit back in July.

“We need to try and figure out why these past four rounds haven’t gone our way. Sometimes you wonder what you need to do to get a bit of luck! That being said, it’s far from over. Sometimes all you can do is look forward and when I look forward I see 125 points still on the table so a 23-point deficit is nothing. I’ve had leads of that size going into Assen before and left with a two-point advantage, so anything can happen.”

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By Oli Rushby

Former sports reporter covering British Superbikes, World Superbikes and road racing