Shakey loses GP ride

Shakey Byrne’s topsy-turvy season took another dramatic twist today (Nov 1) when his deal to ride the Camel Honda RC211V at Valencia this weekend fell apart.

The team did a last-minute U-turn and told the Brit he isn’t going to ride. British Superbike star Ryuichi Kiyonari will ride the bike, vacated by injured Troy Bayliss. The news came after this week’s MCN (out on Nov 2) went to press.

Byrne said: “I’m gutted! The team told me they wanted me to ride last week, and then we finalised it all yesterday and did the deal at about 6pm last night. I got my motorhome driven down to the track overnight ready for when I got there. Then the team rang today and said Honda wanted Kiyonari on the bike.

“It’s just another crazy thing that’s happened to me this year. I was really looking forward to riding the bike as the last two times I was out on it I didn’t know the tracks at all, where I know Valencia quite well.”

Kiyonari did most of a MotoGP season on a V5 in 2003 when he took over Daijiro Kato’s bike, and was runner-up in BSB this year on a HRC FireBlade. Byrne is planning to go to Valencia anyway, to try and tie up a MotoGP deal for 2006.

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