Byrne fourth, stolen bikes recovered.

Rizla Suzuki's Shane Byrne set the fourth fastest lap time during the official two day Croft test, despite having both of his GSX-R1000 race bikes stolen from a locked garage at the circuit on Tuesday night.

Fortunately, working in conjunction with the North Yorkshire police, Rizla Suzuki received information leading to the whereabouts of the bikes. Both machines were safely recovered on Wednesday, day one of the test, with one of the bikes then used by Shakey during the afternoon.

"The team is delighted to have the bikes back in its possession," said team manager Robert Wicks. "The theft has cost the team dearly, not least because of the development time lost by Shakey. It has also raised serious questions regarding circuit security at Croft and we will be working closely with the BSB organisers to make sure this cannot happen to us or any other team in the future.

"I would like to thank all the members of the media and the fans of the series who lent us their support after the bikes were stolen. I can promise you that Rizla Suzuki will be stronger as a result of this and we are already looking forward to getting back to the racing at Knockhill next week," he added.

Byrne went on to complete the Croft test with the fourth fastest time after riding both the development fuel cell bike and a 'standard' bike.

"I am happy with the set up on both bikes I rode," said Byrne, who lapped 0.9secs slower than fastest man Leon Haslam. "We worked hard on setting up the fuel cell bike and it is very fast. I tried my normal set-up in the afternoon and matched the time of the development bike which is encouraging. Trying new ideas, parts and settings is what testing is all about and we have learnt a lot these last two days.

"I didn't use a qualifying tyre which makes my lap times even better in comparison to the riders who did. On race rubber I was keeping pace with Gregorio Lavilla and that's a good benchmark. I'm happy and the team has plenty of feedback on where I think we can cut lap times further. We'll be working on that before returning to race here next month."