Shane ‘Shakey’ Byrne from Sittingbourne speaks to FUCHS SILKOLENE, one of the main partners of the five-time British Superbike champion.

In some respects, it was a disappointing weekend at Silverstone – and a painful one as well.

But when all’s said and done, I have qualified for the Showdown and that is objective No.1 achieved.

I go into the Showdown with a small lead over Leon Haslam but I honestly couldn’t care less. There was one season when I went into the final races with a 27-point lead but had a couple of crashes and it was wiped out.

The nature of the competition means you can never do enough in the regular season to give yourself a free run in the Showdown.

Now it’s all about just going out there and winning enough races to take the title while keeping an eye on my rivals. I’ve been here before and relish the challenge.

There were some things to be happy about on the weekend but some things did upset me as well, particularly race one.

There was standing water from Hangar Straight to Farm Curve and then from Maggots to Becketts was bone dry. Myself and some of the other top riders approached the race director and asked for a delay in the start of the race to allow for the conditions to improve, but our opinions were just overlooked.

We have vast experience between us but were just ignored. I was pretty angry about that.

The race went ahead and I opted for intermediate tyres. I was running sixth but knew I had to go for it in order to pick up podium points but just hit the corner 4kph faster than I had the previous lap and ended up upside down in the gravel.

Race two was a lot better for me than people realise. I had to run the harder rear tyre, which doesn’t suit me or the Ducati, and it’s something we only do when the track is really cold. Even so, I gave Josh Brookes a real run for his money on his soft tyres and finished third.

The conditions were horrendous for race three but it was a difficult call for the race directors as there were still Showdown spots to be decided. That said, it says something when out of the best riders in the country, only seven managed to finish, with me being one of the 16 to crash out.

And so we head to Oulton Park this weekend. It is going to be tough and there is no room for error but I know I have the ability and the experience to see this out and claim a sixth championship title. Bring it on.