Byrne and Easton makes it PBM one-two at Knockhill

Shane Byrne and Stuart Easton has made it a Paul Bird Motorsport Kawasaki one-two after the opening day of the MCE British Superbike weekend at Knockhill, with the pair leading both free practice sessions so far.

Byrne, coming from a dominant double victory at Snetterton last time out, was 0.3 faster than his local teammate at the end of the day – and with heavy rain forecast for tomorrow, says that the work done today was crucial.

“I think that if there was ever a day of riding that was going to be really important, it was today. We all know that the weather forecast ain’t so great for the rest of the weekend, and generally speaking your wet setting comes from an evolution of your dry one – so it was quite important for me to be up to speed.

“This afternoon, we tried some new parts on the bike, and there’s definitely come margin for improvement – but there are some definite improvements too. We say quite often that we’re working in a window  – well, at the minute we’re in the postcode, and that’s nearly right enough for us!”

Easton was only a fraction of a second ahead of Josh Brookes on the Milwaukee Yamaha, despite the Aussie sliding off unhurt in the closing stage of the second session.

He led a provisional second row of Michael Laverty, Christian Iddon and a late push from the RAF Reserves BMW of Peter Hickman. He led an impressive run from supersport graduate Luke Mosssey, triple champion Ryuichi Kiyonari and Danny Buchan on the be Wiser Kawasaki.

Meanwhile, championship third place man James Ellison was left back in twelfth, still struggling from broken ribs after his Snetterton qualifying crash – and with his life being made even more difficult by only a second covering the top nineteen around the short and twisty track.