HM Plant Honda's Shane 'Shakey' Byrne had a difficult start to his day at Brands Hatch as the Title Fighter crashed out heavily during qualifying and despite a bang to his hand bounced back to fight his way through from nineteenth on the grid to sixth in the opening MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship race.

Byrne had been pushing hard and in Q2 the former double champion crashed out at Westfield which saw his assault on the pole position end dramatically. However after being passed fit by the BSB medical team Byrne was back on track for the race and fought hard to carve his way up the order to finish sixth. He now lies fifth in the title standings but claims he will still be giving it everything tomorrow to take the final two wins of the season.

Byrne said:

"What a day! I was feeling confident for qualifying and I just high-sided at Westfield. I was on the gas and ran out onto the edge onto the concrete dust and it just snapped me back and threw me over the bars. It was frustrating as I banged my hand and it gave the boys a lot of work to do before the race, so all credit to them. In the race I started 19th so it was never going to be easy but the front kept folding on me and then I went wide at Westfield and didn't want another repeat performance so I sat it up and went across the grass! It was a pretty disappointing race for me as we had high hopes. I am hopeful that tomorrow we can turn it around in the last two races of the season to make amends."

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