BSB: Shakey shows ’em at Thruxton

BSB: Shakey shows ’em at Thruxton.

By Philip Wain

The sixth round of the MCE British Superbike Championship at Thruxton last weekend saw some of the most topsy-turvy races ever seen in the domestic series with the Hampshire circuit’s unique surface throwing up all manner of tyre dilemmas.

Extremely abrasive in nature, talk from the very first practice session was all about tyres and which option would work best in the races – the softer SC0 option or the harder SC1. The former was expected to give more grip in the early stages but tail off in the second half of the race while the latter wasn’t expected to come into its own until mid-race distance.

However, that pattern wasn’t as clear cut as it seemed and the fluctuations in the fortunes of the riders was quite dramatic – top three one minute, out of the points the next. And vice versa. But that made for two thrilling races.

One man who had no such issues was Shane Byrne and he dominated the event from the very start. Indeed, had it not been for a broken gear linkage in the second, he’d have had the perfect set of pole position, two race wins and a new lap record. As it was, he had to settle for a solitary race win but it was still enough for him to extend his title lead as nearest rival Leon Haslam struggled all weekend.

Languishing around 15th for much of practice and qualifying, the first race saw him run in a podium position for much of the way before his tyres went and he dropped back dramatically to 13th although he did salvage his weekend with fifth in the second. His fortunes were the opposite of team-mate James Ellison who couldn’t even break into the top 20 during qualifying. However, he managed to make the tyres work for him over a race distance and fifth and seventh certainly didn’t look it was going to be possible for much of the weekend.

The rider who had the least problems though, or the rider who managed the situation the best, was Michael Laverty and with first and second, the Tyco BMW fired himself back into championship contention. It moved him comfortably into one of the top six Showdown positions and the form he showed will have been noted by all his rivals.

Jason O’Halloran, Luke Mossey and Glenn Irwin all had strong weekends – the latter scoring his maiden BSB podium – but for others, it was a weekend to forget and, as well as Haslam, Dan Linfoot, Christian Iddon and the Lee Hardy Racing duo of Alastair Seeley and Jake Dixon will all want to put race day behind them.

Meanwhile, for Billy McConnell, it was a bitter-sweet event on the FS-3 Kawasaki. He showed great pace all weekend, running in the top three in both races but his tyre life dropped off more rapidly than others and he walked away from the meeting with not a single point to show for his efforts.