BSB: Byrne & Haslam raise track temperature concerns

Shane Byrne and Leon Haslam have been to see race direction to raise concerns about track temperature ahead of this afternoon’s opening Bennetts British Superbike race.

There were a large number of seemingly innocuous crashes across both the final free practice and qualifying sessions with no fewer than five riders tucking the front at the fast left-hander at Craner curves, two down at Starkeys and another at the esses.

Byrne, who qualified in third, raised concerns about the number of crashes in the post-qualifying press conference before making a trip to see race director Stuart Higgs along with rival and polesitter for this afternoon’s opening race Leon Haslam.

Leon and I went to see Stuart and said we were a little concerned at how many crashes there were in that session,” Byrne told MCN. “I had a number of moments and it seemed as though every time you came around Craner there was another yellow flag and someone else barrel-rolling through the grass!

“Race direction think the temperature could improve a bit this afternoon so we’ll have to see. Leon made a very valid point about if the safety car comes out, because if we have to back off everything will cool down and it’ll be unsafe but Stuart has told us there won’t be a safety car for that reason.

“We’re going to take a look at it at four ‘o’clock and if everything is looking the way it should be looking then we should be good to go. If the temperature hasn’t improved much since qualifying then we’ll have to re-evaluate.”