Monday 21 July 2014 07:00, UK
Ryuichi Kiyonari held off series leader Shane Byrne to win the opening race in round five of the British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch on Sunday.
Byrne made the running for much of the opener but, after he succumbed to pressure from James Ellison and Kiyonari, the Japanese rider snatched the lead to take the victory by a 10th of a second aboard his Buildbase BMW.
Byrne was eager to make amends next time out, charging his Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki into the lead, but the race was halted after three laps by a spectacular crash in which Ellison and his Kawasaki ZX-10R took a battering.
The restart lasted only four laps before the race was halted by rain.
The riders then switched to the appropriate tyres for the wet conditions with Australian Josh Waters taking charge on the Tyco Suzuki to win ahead of Richard Cooper and Keith Farmer while Byrne finished fifth.
The Londoner could take some consolation as he increased his lead in the overall standings to 92 points over Josh Brookes, who struggled to finish sixth and then eighth.
Kiyonari was forced out of the second race by a machine problem.
