BYRNE ON THE BACK FOOT
Reigning MCE British Superbike Champion Shane Byrne is concerned with how little track time he’s had ahead of this weekend’s opening round at Donington Park. Byrne and his BeWiser PBM Ducati team last completed any meaningful testing back in January at Portimao and Jerez. They were unable to return to Spain like the vast majority of their BSB rivals because they were awaiting arrival of a new swingarm and exhaust from the Ducati factory in Italy. The 40-year-old, five-time BSB champion did manage to at least ride at the official one day test at Donington Park but got only very limited track time due to heavy rain. “I’d be lying to you if I said I’m heading into the season brimming with confidence,” Byrne told MCN. “Testing is really important as it’s crucial to be sharp and on top of the job at the start of the season. Unfortunately, no matter what you do training-wise, how good a trainer you employ and how rigorously you stick to your plan there is no substitute for actually riding a superbike. “Physically I’ll be able to ride, but you need time on the bike for your body to be able to feel those kind of stresses for it to become second nature again. There were times at the Donington test when even though we were going pathetically slow, I felt like I was doing 1000mph! That’s the edge that you lose if you don’t ride all the time and after not riding for two months I feel I’ve had another winter break!” He added: “I’m expecting mission impossible at round one!” he laughed. “I don’t want to talk myself down or my team and make out we’re in a mega bad place, because I guess you could say that’s far from true! However, normally by now we’ve done eight or nine days testing and I’m feeling super-sharp and ready to push to the limit. “That limit is normally enough to top sessions and win races but with two months without riding that might not be the same as it would have been if we’d been testing.” Given the lack of track time, Byrne has made the call to ride his bike exactly as it was at the end of last season rather than try new parts straight away at Donington Park. “At the moment, I’ll start with the bike pretty much as it was at Brands,” he explained. “My crew chief asked me if I want the new exhaust and swingarm for round one, session one and I said no. The bike we’ll start on will be the bike from last year and my race pace at Donington was enough to do the double. Obviously, you can’t sit still in racing as things move forward but we know we’ve got a good set-up and the bike works, so there’s no point in going with something new and losing our way when I’m not as sharp on the bike as I could be.” However, while Byrne can’t hide his concern, as a five-time British Champion he’s not ruling himself out completely. “I’ll still be fighting for wins this weekend, but I honestly don’t know where I’ll be.”
‘I’d be lying if I said I was heading into the season full of confidence’ SHANE BYRNE