Shane Byrne was on the receiving end of further bad luck during the sixth round of the World Superbike Championship in South Africa.

Byrne started way down in 14th on the grid but managed to finish ninth in race one, only for mechanical problems to force him out of race two.

The Sittingbourne rider had problems with his rear tyre in the opening race but that didn’t stop him from making some progress after a disappointing qualifying position.

A broken accelerator wire forced Byrne to return to the pits before the start of the second round.

Byrne said: "I’m satisfied with race 1 although my performance was influenced by a problem I had with the back tyre that was chattering.

It was completely destroyed at the end of the race. I did however score a good result that I could have replicated in race two Unfortunately, another problem forced me to get back to the pits."

Byrne has 48 championship points and sits 15th in the standings.