Byrne almost fit to go at Brno

There shouldn't be any problems regarding the participation of Shane Byrne in the ninth round of the Hannspree FIM Superbike World Championship at Brno next week. The British rider was involved in a nasty crash during Imola testing this week after coming into contact with Leon Haslam.

Genesio Bevilacqua, Althea Racing's general manager, spoke to his rider and declared: "The stitches applied by the Imola medical service to Shane's left hand shouldn't create any problems for him to race at Brno. The fact that there isn't any fracture (Ed. at first a metacarpal bone break was suspected) has given us reasons to be optimistic and I am sure that if the doctors confirm their authorization, Shane will react like every British rider, who to me appear to be notoriously insensitive to pain. If everything goes the way we hope Byrne might even be in a position to aim to improve on his last year's results".

In 2009 Shane Byrne took his private Ducati 1098 to fourth and seventh in the two races at Brno.