Brookes and Byrne win the BSB races at Brands Hatch

The British Superbike Championship has held its sixth round of the season at the Brands Hatch circuit, where we were able to see two very interesting races, with the big winners being Josh Brookes and Shane Byrne, these two riders taking victory in each of the races.

The first race started with a very strong Shane Byrne, managing to take first position after the start, but Alex Lowes was behind and a little further back Josh Brookes, putting up a fight. At the start, a large group of riders held the front positions, but little by little we saw that large group shrink, until it became a very fierce trio on the British track.

That group consisted of Byrne-Lowes-Brookes. The number 67 was overtaken by Lowes, who took the lead, but he didn’t hold it for many laps, since today Josh was riding at a brutal pace, and he took the lead to dominate the first race. It wasn’t going to be easy, though: his rivals Shane and Alex were behind him fighting, showing wheel and putting a lot of pressure on him.

With five laps to go the battle continued the same with those three riders, but suddenly Byrne tried to overtake Brookes and lost control of his machine, crashing to the ground and losing all chances in this race. The bike was badly damaged, so the champion found himself out of the race, scoring a 0. This left Brookes in control of the victory in this race, followed by Lowes in 2nd and Kiyonari in 3rd.

The top 10 was completed by Westmoreland 4th, Jacobsen 5th, Kirkham 6th, Linfoot 7th, Farmer 8th, Mainwaring 9th and Rutter 10th. With these results the overall standings remain in Byrne’s hands with 207 points, but with Brookes close behind on 197 points and Lowes on 195 points, the top three are separated by very few points.

The second race started again with a very strong Shakey Byrne taking the first position, this time with Ellison in second and Lowes behind him, while Brookes had more trouble keeping up the pace. Just when it seemed this group was pulling away alone, rider Costello crashed to the ground after five laps, and the safety car had to come out.

After the safety car left and the race restarted, we saw the group had come back together, with Byrne still in first position, followed by Ellison and Lowes. Little by little, lap by lap, these three riders managed to open a gap over the rest of the field, fighting for the victory until the end, with Byrne finally the best, taking the win in this second race. Behind him, Ellison and Lowes gave him a hard time but could not beat the champion.

The rest of the top 10 went to Brookes 4th, Kiyonari 5th, Westmoreland 6th, Kirkham 7th, Jacobsen 8th, Linfoot 9th and Farmer 10th. There were many crashes, such as those of Smrz and Costello, and also many bikes with technical problems. With this result the overall standings after the sixth round of the season are Byrne 1st with 232 points, followed by Lowes with 211 points, 21 points behind the leader, and Brookes with 210 points, 22 points behind.

Photo | BSB official