If you thought that you had a bad day, two time British Superbike champion Shane “Shakey” Bryne will probably beat you.

The 2012 PBM Kawasaki rider and his family were involved in a head-on traffic accident early Monday morning, which luckily they all escaped injury, but when Byrne stepped out his damaged car he was was hit by another car.

Byrne tweeted: “Was in a multi car pile up early am, survived that in the pitch black, got out of my van, then got knocked down by another car!” and “Wish I could say I was joking, fortunately wife and children ok, suspected broken ankle turned out to be ok. “70mph head on smash, knocked down by another car after the crash and a sore ankle… Somebody was looking out for me!”

Reporting on his physical condition today, always via Twitter, he said “Just out of local hospital, my shoe got ripped off in the accident and one of the cut/grazes is pretty raw, toes look like small sausages ha ha.”

Some days it doesn’t pay to get out of bed …

Source | crash.net

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If you happened to miss the British Supebike season opener at Brands Hatch yesterday or if your country doesn’t televise it, we’ve got a couple of highlight videos so you can get your racing fix.

Shane Byrne made his return to the British championship taking the win in race 1 admist a pretty caotic race, that saw several spectacular crashes that included Michael Laverty, who amazingly walked away unharmed, while Australian Josh Brookes also had his own big one off that left him unable to compete in race 2.

Reigning Superbike champion Ryuichi Kiyonari lucked out when he suffered a mechanical issue just eight laps in. And if you’re wondering how former MotoGP rider John Hopkins fared, he finished just 17th in the first race.

Race 2 saw Tommy Hill take the win from an almost another sure victory by Byrnes despite nursing an injured elbow picked up in last week’s testing session, his win and second place in race 1 sent him to the top of the standings. Ryuichi Kiyonari took second and Brynes had to settle for third. Hopkins made a comeback to take 5th.

Continue reading: British Superbike Brands Hatch: Byrnes and Hill take one each (w/videos)

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With Althea Racing down to a one rider and the World Superbike paddock in a cost cutting mode, Shane Byrne will be returning to the British Superbike Championship and riding for HM Plant Honda next season.

HM Plant will effectively be having a ‘dream team’; confirming this year’s winner Ryuichi Kiyonari and Shane Byrne who have won the title 3 and 2 times respectively. Byrne had been recently linked to Swan Honda and Kiyonari to a Moto2 ride, with Byrne taking up Havier Beltran’s offer and the Japanese rider deciding to staying in BSB and looking to win his 4th title.

Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne said: “I’m delighted to be joining HM Plant Honda. I’ve spent many years in BSB competing against them so I know just how strong the team is – finishing first and second in 2010 is testament to that. My clear aim is to join Kiyo and Niall Mackenzie in having three British titles to my name! I’m looking forward to working with Kiyo as he obviously knows the bike like the back of his hand; he’s a cool guy and I think we will work well together. I’m also looking forward to riding a four-cylinder motorcycle again. People say I’ve only had success on twins, but I’ve never had the chance to ride a top-specification four-cylinder machine, so I’m excited at the chance to prove to people I can race and win on a four too!”

Continue reading: Shane Byrne in BSB with HM Plant Honda

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Last weekend was Shane Byrne’s last race for Althea Racing Team (who may field only Carlos Checa next season) and the British rider after spending two years in World Superbikes and finishing 10th in this year’s standings, may be heading back to the BSB in 2011 where he won the title in 2003 and 2008.

‘Shakey’ in his blog wrote “I have some possibilities in WSB, options in BSB so I’m off up to Oulton Park Saturday to pursue them and a couple of possibilities elsewhere too” and at Oulton he’ll also be talking to Shaun Muir of Swan Honda.

Swan Honda may run a two rider team next season, if team manager Muir finds the necessary sponsorship backing, admitted that he’s in talks with Byrne and several other riders, “I have a lot of people, including Shakey, on the phone over the last few weeks and I will be in a position to make a decision about riders in the next ten to fourteen days. Talks with my main two sponsors are a long way down the road now and it looks likely we can run with two riders, and do some road racing, next year but, as with all these things, the details are yet to be confirmed. We will, however, be running with Hondas.”

Source | bikesportnews.com

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The removal of 3kg from the twins (read Ducati) have proved a blessing in disguise during today’s free practice at Miller Motosports Park, because five out six 1198 R’s were in the top ten, with three Ducati’s in the top three, and Michel Fabrizio hitting the top of the chart pipping out Carlos Checa in a last minute lunge.

Fabrizo put in a best lap of 1′49.756 leaving Checa in second and off by a little more than one tenth of second while Checa’s team mate Shane Byrne was third and 0.551 from Fabrizio’s 1st spot.

Max Biaggi was floundering in the back of the field and in the last minutes pulled out a fast lap with his Aprilia RSV4F to take fourth, while points leader Leon Haslam finished the hour long session in fifteenth.

Continue reading: WSBK Miller: Ducati Domination, Fabrizio On Top in FP1

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Homeboy Carlos Checa continued his domination on the Valencia race track during the QP1 session. The Spaniard was again the leader, that saw not only six Ducati’s in the top ten, but three privateer Ducati riders taking the three top spots, with Jakub Smrz on the Pata B&G in second, and Checa’s team mate Shane Byrne in third.

Max Biaggi was fourth after being the first rider to break under the 1.35 mark andwas closely followed by Leon Haslam who was fifth.

Factory Ducati riders Fabrizio and Haga were sixth and seventh respectively, despite a crash by Fabrizio. DFX’s Lorenzo took eighth while Sterilgarda Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow was ninth and Aprilia’s Leon Camier in 10th.

James Toseland, Troy Corser and Simon Andrews also suffered crashes in this session.

Continue reading: WSBK Valencia QP 1: Carlos Checa Continues to Lead

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Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea lead almost the entire three days of testing at Portimao except for the first day that was led by Alstare Suzuki’s Leon Haslam.

In dry and wet conditions over the weekend, Rea and Haslam swapped the fastest laps. Yesterday’s final test day saw Rea’s put in a best lap of 1′42.270 while Pocket Rocket Haslam did a 1′42.557. As a comparison, Ben Spies’ 2009 Superpole was a 1′42.412.

Althea Ducati’s Shane Byrne took third place with a 1′42.887. Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow impressed on Friday but could not better his time and a crash in the afternoon session didn’t help, but his previous times were enough for fourth.

Xerox Ducati’s Michel Fabrizio who was nursing a bad case of the flu all weekend finished fifth with a 1′43.157. James Toseland was down in sixth almost a second slower than Rea.

Continue reading: WSBK Portimao Tests - Brit Pack Flex Muscles

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You can tell that we are finally approaching the new racing season when teams start their official presentations.

The new 2010 Althea Racing Team was officially presented on Saturday January 16th at a club in Fasano, near Brindisi (Italy). This year Althea Racing has switched from Honda’s to Ducati 1198’s and will see Carlos Checa and Shane Byrne contest in the World Superbike Championship while the team will also see Flavio Gentile ride in the CIV (Italian Superbike Championship).

The Italian team has a brand new red and white and blue racing livery designed by Maya Cohen, who also works as the team’s press officer.

Carlos Checa joined Althea having spent his first two WSBK seasons with Ten Kate Honda: “In few days we’ll leave for Portimao and I will be able to start to work with my new technicians in order to start the Superbike world championship in the best possible way. My team worked very hard to prepare the bikes and I’ll do my best starting from the first test session in Portimao because I want to start this 2010 season in the right way.”

Continue reading: WSBK - Althea Racing Launches 2010 Line Up

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It looks like Shane Byrne is going to be leaving Marco Borciani’s Team Sterilgarda BRC Racing and is heading towards Althea Ducati in 2010.

The British rider had been spotted entering the Althea Honda (before switching to Ducati ) truck during the Portimao weekend and apparantly the rider is about to close a deal with Genesio Bevilacqua’s Italian team according to MCN.

Althea decided to switch marques for the upcoming 2010 World Superbike season and announced that they wanted another rider after signing up veteran Spanish rider Carlos Checa. Ducati Corse is keen on keeping Byrne on one of their satellite bikes and could help in finalizing the deal.

Byrne’s finished eighth in this year’s standings, after a lacklustre 2009 season begining came back very strong during the second half, taking second place at Misano and several fourth places.

UPDATED

Althea Racing has confirmed signing Shane Byrne. More after the jump.

Continue reading: WSBK: Shane Byrne to Althea Ducati?

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Today’s Superpole at Portimao saw what could completely change tomorrow’s title race outcome. Points leader Noriyuki Haga qualified only 10th and did not make it into the final qualifying stint, while his rival Ben Spies not only took his 11th pole position of the season with a blistering lap of 1’42”412 but was also almost a second faster that the previous circuit record and more that 0.584s faster than Shane Byrne on the private Ducati Sterilgarda who took second.

Michel Fabrizio on the factory Ducati took third, while Jonathan Rea was fourth and will close the front row. The second row will see a battered Max Biaggi, who crashed in practice session, in fifth and Fonsi Nieto on another private Ducati whotook sixth followed by Leon Haslam and with Troy Corser closing the second row, but more than a second adrift from Nieto after a crash in the last superpole stint.

Continue reading: WSBK Portimao – Spies on Superpole and Haga to start in 10th

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What WSBK riders had to say after the 9th Superpole at Donington Park.

Ben Spies - 1st

“It was a good Superpole session for us, we almost got caught out as I think I was the last one to leave the garage. As soon as I came out of the pit lane I could see the drops start to come so I had to really attack the warm up lap. I told myself to nail the first sector so I could relax a little bit in the back half in case it rained a bit more. The first sector was brilliant, in the second and third rain drops were coming so I wanted to be careful not to touch any paint down. It was good to get up there to the front as it’s a short start to turn one so it’s a good position for us. The bike is working great on race tyres as well so I’m looking forward to what will be an exciting race.”

Max Biaggi - 2nd

“It was a very exciting Superpole. During the last lap, I noticed that the first drops of rain were beginning to fall and I started
off immediately by trying to make the most of the track while it was still dry, and it went well. This time the rain helped us out. We had some rather good qualifying rounds, we’ve improved along the way, even if we aren’t as
fast as we need to be yet. We still have too much trouble at the slowest portion of the track. I hope to have a great race tomorrow on this track, which I like a lot.”

Shane Byrne - 3rd

“I’m really excited to start from the front row at Donington which is my home track. I’m happy for my best practice result of the season. I couldn’t have done it though without the crew who have done such a good job. They managed to combine the best features of each of the two bikes I worked on yesterday. I’m ready for any weather condition for tomorrow’s races. I’ll try and use the warm up session to choose the tyres for race 1 and hopefully do well in both”.

Continue reading: WSBK Donington - Superpole rider quotes

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Many of you may not know that Shane Byrne’s Team Sterilgarda BRC Racing manager Marco Borciani is a rider himself and has twice won the Campionato Italiano Velocità (CIV) in 2006 and 2007. In 2008 he decided not to contest perfering to follow his WSBK team, but when his CIV team Chemiba GPM asked him to re-enter he ended up doing half a season. This year Borciani is ready to do the whole season and has been training this last winter.

His team will be BRC Racing Chemiba sponsored by Sterligarda Altea and Chemiba. The team manager/rider from Brescia will be using a Ducati 1098 RS.

Borciani will be competing against Italian CIV riders of the caliber of Brignola, Chiarello, Mauri Gramigni and Conforti and new arrival Ivan Clementi (ex Triumph WSS).

Also partecipating as a wildcard for Team Guandalini will be Gregorio Lavilla, former WSBK rider who lost his ride with ProRide, when his team folded and pulled out of the WSBK championship due sponsorship problems.

Source | racergp

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