Motorcycling: Hislop crashes out to give Byrne victory

Shane Byrne tasted glory in the British Superbike Championship for the second time this season, after a dramatic ending to the second race of the eighth round here yesterday.

The championship leader Steve Hislop was clipped by Michael Rutter on the last corner of the last lap, both fell and Byrne sped through to win. The two riders had duelled frantically for the final two thirds of the 30-lap race, the high-point of their scrap coming with three laps remaining when they traded places four times.

Hislop, the 40-year-old Hawick rider, came out on top and seemed set to take his Ducati to a second double win of the season, but Rutter was having none of it, and began to reel him in.

Under-braking into Taylor's Hairpin, Hislop held the edge with Rutter looking for a way through on the inside, but the front wheel of his Ducati clipped the back of the leader's bike and they both crashed out. Byrne whipped through to take the victory ahead of Paul Brown and Sean Emmett, while Hislop managed to remount and pick up some points taking a distant seventh place.

The Isle of Man-based Scot said: "I thought I had it won. I wasn't sure about the size of my lead, and went into the hairpin a bit tighter, and then felt a bit of a tap from behind.

"That was it. I was down and the bike was sliding into the gravel, but I managed to get back on and finish seventh. On the slow-down lap, I stopped to offer Michael a lift back to the pits. He apologised – it was one of those things that happen."