Shakey Byrne

The champion

DO NOT BE fooled by the grinning, cheeky-chappy persona Shane Byrne projects when a television camera is pointed at him. When you get to ask him a serious question about the British Superbike Championship, or any other aspect of racing, he exudes the authority and certainty of a man who has been there and done that (six times). His pronouncements, delivered with clarity and a slightly disconcerting stare, carry weight and massive authority. I opened by suggesting that BSB is the best domestic championship in the World and was quite surprised by his reply: ‘I think it’s easy to sit on your settee and think that it’s the best. The reality in BSB is that any factory can win a race. The difficult thing is being that rider who wins every weekend.’ The problem is, says Shakey that we don’t have, ‘a superbike’ that is one universal set of technical regulations that governs everything called a Superbike worldwide. And there is no reason why the Americans or the World Superbike Championship should adopt the rulebook hammered out by Stuart Higgs five years ago. As an aside this makes resurrecting the USP of World Supers – fast wild-cards who can harass the regulars – a near impossibility. When those regulations were brought in, Shakey led the opposition – ‘you don’t have to sit on top of one of those things!’ – now, without prompting, he makes the point that: ‘The decision to take away traction control and rider aids turns out to have been brave and foresighted.’ He is, of course, completely right. Starting with the World Endurance rulebook, the Motor Sport Vision team came up with a formula that allows every bike to be, and stay, competitive for sensible money. As Shakey pointed out, it is the fundamental reason why at least ten riders on five different makes of motorcycle are capable of winning races. And that makes for good spectating.

‘In BSB… the difficult thing is being that rider who wins every weekend’