Rapid Solicitors Racing Team's Shane 'Shakey' Byrne defied the pain of an injured shoulder to thrust himself into title contention with a superb victory in the opening Showdown round of the 2012 MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship held at the TT Circuit Assen today.

The double British champion was riding for the first time since dislocating his shoulder a month ago and showed good pace throughout the weekend meaning he was confident going into the races.

In front of a bumper crowd at the historic Dutch circuit, Byrne battled for the lead in the opening stages of race one before making a break to win by a comfortable 4.7 seconds ahead of title rivals Josh Brookes and Alex Lowes meaning he leapt to the head of the British Superbike standings going into the day's second race.

In race two Byrne got another great start and again led for the most part before being challenged by Brookes towards the end and going into the last lap it was still anyone's race. Brookes made a move on Shakey at the final corner but just as Byrne tried to respond he came across a backmarker and as a result Brookes took the victory with Byrne in a close second place.

The result means that after two races out of seven in the Showdown Byrne is just two points adrift of Brookes heading into Silverstone next weekend.

For team mate Stuart Easton the weekend heralded a return to form for the Scotsman and after qualifying on row two of the grid he circulated with the leading bunch in the opening half of race one only to be forced wide at the chicane which caused him to run into the gravel. Eventually Easton finished ninth and the team went to work on the bike to make some changes for race two whereby Easton responded with again being in the leading bunch to end up in tenth position.

Shakey Byrne:

"If anyone had offered me a first and second a week ago I'd have laughed at them, but after winning race one I was disappointed not to win race two. My shoulder was sore but didn't cause me too many problems in race one and I was lining up to pass Josh in the final corner in race two but was unfortunately baulked by a backmarker, but that's racing. I'm certainly fired up for Silverstone and happy enough to be just two points off the championship lead."

Stuart Easton:

"I was going well in race one until I got forced wide and was lucky not to crash but then I had my work cut out to try and salvage a result. I didn't have enough grip towards the end of that race so we changed the bike a lot as we thought we were chasing a handling issue but it was my fault as we went in the wrong direction. A ninth and a tenth was not what I had in mind as I felt I could really help Shakey out but we'll put this behind us and hope for a better result at Silverstone."

Paul Bird, Team Owner:

"It's been a good enough day and I'm really pleased just how strong Shakey was considering he's still injured and he should be even stronger at Silverstone next weekend. We did the support race in MotoGP there so we have a good base setting and we know our bikes are good. I'm over the moon, a double would have been nice but we know how hard that is in BSB and as for Stuart his results didn't reflect his performance but he knows he needs to be a lot stronger next weekend."


Results - Race 1
1, Shane Byrne (PBM Rapid Solicitors)
2, Josh Brookes (Suzuki)
3, Alex Lowes (Honda)
4, Luca Scassa (Honda)
5, Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha)
6, Tommy Bridewell (BMW)
9, Stuart Easton (PBM Rapid Solicitors)


Results - Race 2
1, Josh Brookes (Suzuki)
2, Shane Byrne (PBM Rapid Solicitors)
3, Alex Lowes (Honda)
4, Tommy Hill (Yamaha)
5, Tommy Bridewell (BMW)
6, Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha)
10, Stuart Easton (PBM Rapid Solicitors)


Championship Standings (after round 10)
1, Brookes 570pts
2, Byrne 568
3, Hill 548
4, Lowes 534
5, Laverty 532
6, Bridewell 521
11, Easton 111