Shane 'Shakey' Byrne leads the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship standings ahead of the Showdown opener at Assen, but he hasn't won a race since Knockhill in June and wants to put that right with victories this weekend (19/20/21 September).

The Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki rider holds a 26 point lead at the top of the standings ahead of Josh Brookes and Ryuichi Kiyonari, his impressive seeing him finish on the podium 18 times in the 19 races so far. Byrne has notched up six race wins during the Main Season, but after twice finishing second to Kiyonari last time out at Donington Park, he goes to Assen in a determined mood.

Byrne said:

"We have a 26 point advantage but that is nowhere near enough at this point of the season. We did the best we could during the Main Season so we were ready for the Showdown, but 26 points in reality is just one mechanical issue or one slip off - a few average results and then both Josh and Kiyo will be snapping at my heels.

"Our focus is on improving the Rapid Solicitors Kawasaki a little bit and for me to try and find whatever it is we need to find to start beating Kiyo. He has come on really strong in the last few rounds and in some ways I felt a bit unlucky not to have won a race at Donington Park, but we are there in the wet and the dry so if we can continue that form into the end of the season and hopefully sneak a win or two or six, or the seven races we have left, then that would be fantastic.

"It will be cool to be back at Assen, especially as a few of us got to test there the other week and it was a beautiful day. It was a good chance for us to fire a few things in that we wouldn't have been able to try at an event. We tried some stuff that we can work with and hopefully we can jump back up on the top step there and do some winning again because that is what we come racing for!"



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