BSB: End of an era for Byrne and PBM

The arrival of Redding and Brookes in the PBM camp marks the end of an era as the Cumbrian set-up parts company with six-time BSB champion Shane Byrne.

Byrne won 65 races and five British titles with PBM, riding for them in 2003, 2007 and from 2012 onwards until he was injured in a testing crash at Snetterton earlier this year. 

While even Byrne doesn’t know whether he’ll be able to return to action after badly breaking his neck and back in the crash, should he end up being fit to return it won’t be with the Be Wiser Ducati team. 

Team boss Paul Bird confirmed to MCN at Silverstone that Byrne wouldn’t form part of the team’s 2019 line-up and thanked the six-time champion for his services when announcing Scott Redding last weekend. 

“It’s difficult for me as I’m out injured,” Byrne told MCN. “I can’t expect PBM to keep a seat open for me not knowing whether I’d be back or not, but it would have been nice to have been told rather than finding out through gossip!

“I was looking forward to riding and developing the V4, but it’s one of them. I’m injured so I wasn’t on Paul’s radar, I’ve had to turn down other offers too as I just can’t know if I’ll be back at this stage… Hopefully we will know more in November. 

“That being said, I wish PBM all the best and Scott and Josh is a sensible line-up… Scott has had a tough couple of years and really needs to re-invent himself and maybe coming to BSB is the place to do that. It is stepping into a lion’s den a bit – nobody on the track will give him an inch because he’s Scott Redding and they’ll all want to beat him because he’s a good rider.

“Josh has a lot of experience, he’s a great racer and a good guy to race against. He’s a decentish gauge for Scott to judge his performance, but young Tarran has been showing Josh the way lately!”