Shane Byrne suffered a high-speed crash on Sunday during a controversial first British Superbike showdown event.

Byrne was taken out by title rival Alex Lowes in the second race at Assen, an incident led to officials stripping Lowes of his subsequent race win.

Sittingbourne’s Byrne emerged from the weekend just one point clear of Honda rider Lowes, who won the first race with a gap of just 0.102 seconds between the pair.

Byrne tweeted: “I’m ok, as ok as you can be jumping off at 270 kmh.

“Alex Lowes and I are still cool, we didn’t decide the outcome of the result, it was left to the officials who’s job it is to decide with us and our teams present, so please no more about it.

“It’s happened, the outcome’s sorted, now I have to get fixed to be stronger at Silverstone.”

The first race at the Dutch circuit delivered the kind of title fight race organisers were hoping for, having introduced the Showdown system.

Lowes and Byrne swapped the lead six times in the final lap and Lowes just edged home at the flag.
Race two was equally dramatic.

Tommy Bridewell had already crashed out, taking Noriyuki Haga with him, before Lowes ran into Byrne, taking him out at high-speed.

Josh Brookes – another title contender – also slid out. Lowes took the lead from James Ellison and claimed the win, although his celebrations were premature.

Race officials deemed him at fault for Byrne’s crash, leaving Ellison with the race win.