Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne topped all 3 qualifying session at the TT Circuit Assen today, setting a new lap-record and claiming his 50th career pole.

His lap of 1:35.724 was half a second clear of the opposition and will see the Be Wiser PBM Ducati Team start from the front of the British Superbike grid in tomorrow’s first race at the Netherlands circuit.

Had it been the WorldSBK grid and not BSB, Shakey’s time onboard his Ducati Panigale R would have been good enough to place him on the front row in 2nd place.


Shakey Byrne - Be Wiser PBM Ducati Team

“You could see people sitting in the middle of the track and waiting for tows but I just wanted to do my own lap, my own clear thing and know exactly where I was. In the end I did a 2nd lap and got some traffic towards the end of the lap, but fortunately it panned out and was a half sensible lap. I’m happy with the bike, we’ve made some progress since yesterday in the dry now we just need to wait and see what the track conditions are tomorrow and then we can take a view on what we need to do.

As a professional rider you do your very best to keep out of everybody’s way and it just seems that sometimes it’s a not a quality that’s shared by other people. But it’s racing. It seems a bit strange that 8 or 9 people can be out on a track and there can still be traffic and people sat around.
But we’ve done our job. Pole position for the Be Wiser PBM Ducati Team and I’m happy with that. Just need to try and wrap it up tomorrow now and see how we get on then.”