A frozen timer threatened Shane Byrne’s perfect start to the new British Superbike season.

Byrne launched his bid for a fourth title by winning both races at Brands Hatch on his Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki on Easter Monday.

But he had to get a move-on in the second race when, having been hampered by his on-board timer, it emerged his lead had disappeared. He survived late pressure to pip Josh Brookes by 0.138sec.

Sittingbourne rider Shakey said: “Where Brands is a 30-lap race it can feel like you’re going round forever, so rather than seeing you’ve still got 25 laps to go or whatever, I’ll check the pitboard at the beginning and then leave it for a while.

“The last time I checked I had a one-second lead and my timer was saying 46.09sec every lap.

“I thought that must be impossible, so I slowed down a touch to see what would happen and the timer had frozen. It almost cost me slowing down because when I looked at the pitboard again, James Ellison was right up with me.

“It turned out I’d been doing 46.7 rather than 46.09 and the guys had reeled me in.”

Byrne started the opening race 13th after crashing during wet qualifying on Sunday. He climbed to second place before a red flag led to a restart which saw Byrne finish 1.615sec ahead of Chris Walker, with James Ellison third.