Michael Laverty held on after a thrilling final lap battle with James Ellison to take victory in the final race of the 2015 British Superbike Championship. The unlikely leading duo edged out Shane Byrne while newly crowned champion Josh Brookes missed the chance to complete a showdown clean sweep following a crash on lap eight.
A leading group of six broke away in the early stages of the race with Brookes finding himself at the rear of it after a poor start from pole position. The Australian soon made progress though, picking off Luke Mossey and John Hopkins before taking Ellison for third at Druids on lap six. Byrne surrendered second to the Yamaha man at Stirlings on lap seven but moments later, a rare error took Josh out of the action with his Yamaha clipping the kerb at Graham Hill, sending him crashing into retirement.
With the overwhelming favourite out of the action, Byrne went on the attack with Ellison handing back second on lap twelve but the motivated Laverty was defending his line brilliantly, fending off an attempted move at Paddock Hill. That corner would bring more bad news for ‘Shakey’ on the penultimate lap as Ellison dived back through into second and despite some thrilling final lap action, that is where he would stay as Laverty ended his winning drought.
Byrne ended another consistent season with third place while Dan Linfoot saw off Christian Iddon for fourth. Luke Mossey finished sixth to secure the BSB Rider’s Cup with Danny Buchan and John Hopkins rounding off positive weekends in seventh and eighth respectively.
