Shane Byrne believes he has opened the floodgates after collecting his first MCE Insurance British Superbike victory of the 2012 season – claiming he’s got a monkey off his back.

Byrne (pictured) is in his first season back with Paul Bird Motorsport and after claiming his first podium of the campaign at Thruxton last time out, finishing third, he was finally the one popping the champagne in first.

On Sunday, in a race rescheduled after poor track conditions forced a cancellation at Brands Hatch last month, Byrne could only manage 11th but in race two of the weekend on Monday he battled to finish second behind Chris Walker.

And in race three Byrne made it third time lucky, edging ahead of 2011 BSB champion Tommy Hill, and he believes he won’t have to wait as long to get back to the top of the podium.

"It has taken forever to come but Paul Bird and the team put a lot of faith in me. He likes winning and nothing but winning," said Byrne.

"I am pleased to finally get one out of the way and I am really, really happy. It was a bit of a close move with Tommy but I got alongside him and thought he wasn’t going to let me go.

"It all got a bit close but it was a great race and I really, really enjoyed it. Let’s hope that this is the first of many for me now this season."

Last season Byrne ended in third place in the overall, riding for HM Plant Honda, but this year, back with Bird, he will be targeting improvements on that and he currently lies in third place on 88 points.

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