Having qualified in fourth place for the first 30-lap race around the 1.26-mile Fife track, the team worked hard overnight. And, with changes to the factory-backed Be Wiser Ducati Panigale R, Byrne topped the time sheets in morning warm-up having lapped three tenths of a second quicker than he had done in qualifying.
Despite that, Byrne didn’t get a great start in the opening race and after a physical first lap, he found himself back in eighth place.
Regrouping over the next few laps, he was up to fourth by lap seven before moving up to third at half race distance.
Despite being under constant pressure, the Paul Bird Motorsport rider held on to take a good podium finish and, equally important, another podium credit.
Starting the second race from fifth place on the grid, Byrne had a better start of the line to maintain his fifth place before moving up to third as the race progressed.
Although dropping to fourth in the latter stages, a concerted effort made it up to third at the chequered flag to claim his second podium of the weekend.
The result moves Byrne up to third in the title race going into round five at Snetterton in two weeks’ time whereby team-mate Glenn Irwin, who was injured during practice on Friday and ruled out of the weekend with a dislocated arm and shoulder, hopes to be back in action.
“Having won here last year, it’s obviously disappointing not to have won again,” admitted technical director Phil Borley. “But we didn’t quite have the pace.
“We made numerous changes to the bike between qualifying and the races which helped but the set-up still wasn’t quite what Shane needed it to be.
“Points in the championship and the podium credits are important and he now has himself firmly back in the top six, which is obviously where we need to be.
“We have circuits coming up that should suit both Shane and the bike while having Glenn back and challenging will be another boost to the team.”
Elsewhere on four wheels, this weekend will see a Carlisle’s CA1 Sport and Cockermouth’s M-Sport in action on the continent at the MSA British Rally Championship journeys to Belgium for the fourth round of the season at the famous Ypres Rally.
For the first time in its 59-year history, the championship is heading overseas where the crews will face some stiff competition among 20 asphalt stages that demand the upmost precision and commitment.
CA1 Sport’s Fredrik Åhlin is a man in fine form heading to Belgium. The Swede dominated the opening two rounds – claiming back-to-back wins on the Border Counties Rally and Pirelli International before retiring on the final stage of the Scottish Rally while fighting for the lead of the event.
Despite that set-back, the Swede still leads the standings going into his least preferred surface.
The CA1 Sport driver failed to finish any of the Tarmac rounds last season and will be out to make amends. With Norwegian co-driver Torstein Erikson gelling nicely in the new Skoda Fabia R5, Åhlin will be a man on a mission to keep himself in pole position after the channel crossing.
CA1 Sport team-mates David Bogie and Kevin Rae claimed a well-deserved and popular home win on the Scottish Rally – a victory that has put the Scot right back in the title hunt. The DMACK-supported driver adapts quickly to new challenges and last season took two podiums out of the three Tarmac rounds.
Multiple BRC Champion Keith Cronin has had a difficult start to his first season with M-Sport. The Fiesta R5 driver has been on the cusp of several podiums before retirements and punctures cost the Irishman the results he deserved.
The reigning Irish Tarmac Champion is at home on sealed-surfaces and Ypres provides the perfect opportunity to pocket a good haul of points and thus catapult him and co-driver Mikie Galvin up the series leaderboard.
Another man who will be rubbing his hands together with the championship’s move to Tarmac is Cronin’s M-Sport team-mate Alex Laffey together with co-driver Patrick Walsh.
Laffey scored his first gravel points on the Pirelli and impressed again on his home event at the Scottish Rally.
Riding on the crest of a wave, Laffey will be hoping to notch-up his best finish and score more points in his Pirelli-shod Fiesta R5 this weekend.
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