As the field lined up it was the two Rizla Suzuki riders who were in the wars. John Reynolds was still suffering the after effects of a broken collar bone, sustained at Silverstone, whereas Yukio Kagayama had hurt himself during the qualifying session. The Japanese man resolved to race on, but was on the back end of row three, in twelfth position.

The grid was headed by the three works-spec Ducatis of Byrne, Rutter and Sean Emmett, with Reynolds an impressive fourth. Row two had another pair of Ducatis, ridden by John Crawford and Dean Ellison, but behind the 750cc Kawasaki of Australian Glen Richards. Eighth place went to a Honda VTR SP2, but not the Steve Plater machine. This week he had a temporary team-mate in the form of Mark Heckles, who was piloting the team’s spare bike. His experience on a privateer World Superbike SP2 was obviously paying off. The third row was populated by Hislop and Gary Mason, on the Yamahas, ahead of Plater and Kagayama.

Race one started with Rutter taking the lead from Byrne, Reynolds, Emmett and Richards. However, Byrne went side-by-side with Rutter, through the esses beyond the back straight, and braved it out to go ahead. A year earlier this pair had experienced a major collision on the same part of the circuit, as team-mates. Behind them, Emmett and Richards both went past Reynolds, and before long the leading bikes were beginning to space out on the track.

Reynolds wasn’t about to give best to the Kawasaki ahead, and his GSX-R’s greater straightline speed allowed him to breeze right past after exiting the first corner. Almost immediately he was able to pull away from the other four-cylinder machine. Gaps were opening up between several of the leading riders, as Byrne was leaving Rutter in his wake, and Emmett, on the second Renegade machine, was even further back in third. Kagayama, now up to sixth, was a way off Richards, but was closing in.

At this stage, Hislop’s third outing on the R1 Yamaha came to an early end, when he was forced to withdraw. He was soon joined by Emmett, whose 998 toured off the circuit with another terminal problem. It was his third no-score from three races. Reynolds was gifted third place by this turn of events, and his team-mate was soon up to fourth, overtaking Richards in much the same manner as ‘JR’ had.

But these positions were quickly reversed. Whilst Richards was sliding his ZX-7RR’s rear end through a right-hand kink, Kagayama was going too quickly into the left-hand corner just ahead, and had to run onto the grass to stay upright. He rejoined the tarmac in fifth, just in front of Mason and Plater, with Crawford not far behind the three of them, and it became a close battle.

Kagayama managed to run wide into another corner, this time a right-hander, and Mason took advantage to nip through. With Plater, this trio ran right together, and the Suzuki man was quickly back to fifth as he out-dragged the number eight machine. Plater followed him through, and Crawford also caught Mason into the bargain. It became a four-way battle now, but Kagayama was obviously in some sort of trouble. The other three all went past him in one go, pulling clear very rapidly, and he withdrew from the race not long afterwards.

But, as the race came to a close, suddenly it was the two leaders who were racing for position. Byrne’s impressive lead evaporated quite dramatically, and Rutter was able to go through fairly easily and blast away into the distance. Sadly for Shane, his Dunlop tyres had suffered serious wear and tear, and he wasn’t the only one to experience this difficulty.

A win for Rutter put him just two points behind Byrne on the points table, and third for Reynolds marked a useful début after missing the Silverstone races. Fourth finally went to Plater, from Richards, Crawford, Paul Young, Mason, Scott Smart and Jon Kirkham. Heckles was another man not to finish.

For race two, the number of laps was reduced from 25 to 20, at the request of tyre suppliers Dunlop. A combination of the heat and the road surface had proved too much for their rubber, and it was felt this could compromise rider safety. This time Reynolds took the lead from Rutter, Emmett, Richards, Byrne, Hislop, Mason, Kagayama and Crawford. However, as soon as they all reached the back straight things started to change. At this point, both Reynolds and Richards were passed by the man behind, and this meant that pole man Byrne had come back into fourth.

But he wasn’t there for long. As they reached the main straight, Byrne was able to pass both Emmett and Reynolds in one move, putting himself second only to Rutter. Meanwhile, Mason was going well again, as he passed the Virgin Mobile Yamaha of team-mate Hislop for sixth. As if to assert Ducati’s dominance, Emmett now passed Reynolds into the esses, making it a one-two-three for the 998 TestaStrettas.

Byrne’s hot pace was evident, and he passed Rutter for the lead into turn one. Before long he had opened a gap to the Renegade rider, and Rutter’s efforts to keep up didn’t pay off. Going round the double apex Riches some laps later, the number two machine slid out from under him, and they both tumbled into the distance, race over. Elsewhere, Hislop had been forced to retire once again, and Richards was in the same boat as his Kawasaki engine started to smoke.

All of this meant that Byrne found himself with a very handy lead over Emmett, and he duly wheelied it over the finish line in some comfort. Underlining his form, ‘Shakey’ also recorded fastest lap for both races. Emmett was second, with another gap over Reynolds, and Mason was in an equally solitary fourth place - his best result to date. Fifth place went to Kagayama from Crawford.

Seventh position had been hotly contested by the Honda Racing pair, with Heckles attacking team leader Plater, and making an impressive pass into the esses. He held the place to the finish, making an excellent impression into the bargain. The remainder of the top ten was made up of Young and Smart.

Byrne’s early season form was looking ominous, and after Rutter’s mistake it was also reflected in the points table. Hislop, on the other hand, was languishing in twelfth, with a best finish of fifth not demonstrating his title-winning abilities.

Standings after four races: Byrne 90; Rutter 63; Kagayama 44; Richards 43; Mason 40; Reynolds and Smart 32; Crawford 30; Plater 27; Lee Jackson 21; Emmett 20; Hislop 19.

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