Shane Byrne eager to get back on track

The WSB season might only have just finished but Shane Byrne is itching to get back on track now that he’s confirmed his deal with Althea Ducati for next year.

“I wish I could go and ride the new bike right now,” he told MCN.

The reason for his enthusiasm is that he’ll be on the same top level equipment as new team-mate Carlos Checa.

Shakey said: “The difference in 2010 is that I’ll be getting the ride by wire system and that’s one of the big factors (in getting the best out of the Ducati).

“I know when Bayliss first tried one at the end of 2008 he said it transformed the bike.

“You can dial the electronics to suit individual corners and it just makes the bike so much smoother to ride.

“When I went to WSB this year, it was on the back of a million promises and the long and short of it is that it’s been a bad year for everyone and I didn’t get a lot of the things that were discussed.

“One of the things I discovered in WSB this year is that you constantly have to develop the bike.

“It might be okay in BSB to finish the year with the bike you started with but every time there’s a break in WSB, the teams come back even stronger.

“When I first talked with Althea owner Genesio Bevilacqua just before Portimao, I told him what I wanted and he agreed to put it all into my contract.

“He’s been fantastic and It’s a pretty cool deal for me.

“He’s hired Carlos so that proves how serious he is. And Carlos isn’t going to jump without certain guarantees.

“The good thing for me is that my Ducati engineers (from the Sterilgarda team), my chassis engineer and possibly two of my mechanics from this year are transferring over with me.

“The bikes are my ex-GSE Ducatis, which Genesio bought from Darrell Healey. They’re obviously 2008 bikes but will be uprated to 2010 spec.

“I’ve no idea how close the bikes will be to the 2010 factory Ducatis, but I’m sure they’ll be competitive.

“The boys are working on that now but I’m not sure if the bikes will be ready in time for the mid-December test at Valencia. I hope so because I can’t wait to ride them.”