I’VE GOT THIS…
Despite a shaky (sorry…) start to the season, ex- FB staffer Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne appears to be tightening his grip on the 2017 BSB series. Penning this just prior to Thruxton’s round (usually a happy hunting ground for Byrne), he’s won four races on the bounce and taken control of the series points table.
In fact, he’s made the racing a little dull at times – dull up the front, that is! At least at Brands Hatch in race one he had to work his way through the pack to nail the victory. But at the same time, given the way he was inexorably nicking place after place, viewers either track side or on TV must have been able to gather that before long themselves.
Yes, he had some crashes early on and, yes, he didn’t quite seem himself for a couple of rounds, but the fightback has been coming and now he and the Panigale are in full flow. And who of the current crop is likely to stop him? As we alluded to last month when celebrating Jake Dixon’s incredible double win at Knockhill, it’s the inconsistency of the BSB crowd that makes the racing so exciting, but also makes life a lot easier for elder statesmen and true quality riders such as Mr Byrne. And likewise, as we also said last issue, Shakey’s success is partly what keeps many young riders from progressing. Of course, it’s not his fault that he’s so damn good at what he does; it just is what it is!
And those inconsistencies remain steadfastly baffling, quite frankly. Quite why most teams and riders in BSB seem unable to sustain a consistent challenge is something we’ve discussed with racing luminaries at length over the past couple of years.
Really it’s down to Leon Haslam to do the job, and Leon is always, without fail, struck with some kind of bad luck every year – be that injury or machine issues. Despite our connection to Shakey, we’d love to see Leon do it though, he’s been the bridesmaid so many times it must be driving him mad!
Or could it be Josh Brookes? Josh has been getting better and better on the Anvil Yamaha, even out-shining the ‘official’ Yamaha McAms squad on a regular basis – though they keep getting hit with bad luck themselves, too.
Brookes could be the man though (also very good around Thruxton), and if he starts to take control right now, he could be in with a shout of the title – wouldn’t that be an amazing story, especially for the Anvil team!
As for the rest, well, short of something incredible happening – Luke Mossey, we’re looking at you here – all auguries point to a showdown fight between Byrne, Haslam and Brookes – this seems like the safest bet we reckon. But we’ll keep ‘em crossed Mossey et al can throw several big monkey wrenches into the mix. The time for change must surely be coming, but really we want that to occur when folk like Byrne are beaten fair and square, as opposed to when he decides to hang up his boots…