Shane Byrne enjoyed glory in the Motor Cycle News British Superbike Championship after a dramatic ending to the second race of the eighth round at Knockhill, Scotland today, as the series leader Steve Hislop crashed out with Michael Rutter on the last corner of the last lap.

The two riders had dueled frantically for the final two thirds of 30 lap race around the tight and demanding 1.3 mile Fife circuit. The height of their scrap came with three laps remaining when they traded places four times.

Hislop, the 40 year old Hawick rider, came out on top and seemed set to take his MonsterMob Ducati to a second daily double of the season, but Rutter was having none of it and turned up the power to reel him in.

Under braking into Taylors Hairpin, Hislop just held the edge, with Rutter looking for a way through on the inside, but the front wheel of his Renegade Ducati clipped the back of the leader's bike and they both went crashing out.

Byrne whipped through and claimed the victory, ahead of IFC Racing's Paul Brown and Sean Emmett, while Hislop managed to remount and pick up some points with a distant seventh place finish despite a suspected broken collar bone.

The Isle of Man based Scot explained: "I though I had it won, even though I had been held up a bit on the back part of the circuit. I wasn't sure about the size of my lead and went into the hairpin a bit tighter, it was then I felt a bit of a tap from behind.

"That was it - I was down and the bike was sliding into the gravel, but I managed to get back on and finish seventh. On the slow-down lap, I stopped to offer Michael a lift back to the pits. He apologised to me - it was one of those things that happen."

Earlier, Hislop had overcome the challenge of Rutter to take the first race victory by 2.4 seconds with Emmett in second place from Renegade Ducati's Rutter.

• Jul 11 - Round 8 - Kempy's report from Knockhill is in

• Jul 7 - Round 8 - Pictorial, Knockhill
• Jul 7 - Round 8 - Results, Knockhill

• Jul 6 - Round 8 - Qualifying, Knockhill