Byrne rides through the pain barrier to P2

Shane Byrne has managed to put his Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki on the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s MCE British Superbike race at Silverstone, after limping away from a massive high side in free practice today at Luffield.

The reigning champion has left himself with extensive damage to his hip and side, but he doesn’t know exactly what damage he has done to himself.

“I wish I knew what exactly i’ve done. The next thing to do is go for a CT scan, but the world seemed to go into fast forward after the crash and before I knew it it was time to go out for qualifying. It’s pretty sore, but I pleaded with the medics to let me go out. I told them i only wanted to do a few laps to qualify, so they declared me first to ride for qualifying.”

Despite his performance in qualifying, he says that moving around on the bike is causing him pain when he moves around on the bike. He has been working with the circuit medical teams to receive physio between sessions, but the problem is still persisting.

“Sitting down, I feel absolutely brand new, but when i stand up and put weight into my led it feels like someone has put a stun gun into my ear, and it just collapses. I get a shooting pain and can’t hold myself up. That’s made moving around on the bike a bit difficult.”

However, Byrne says that come tomorrow’s races, his surprise grid position means that he should be able to hang with the front runners from the start, and that should give him the chance to salvage a result.