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

So this is it. The final weekend of the 2017 British Superbike Championship season and one huge effort required from me and the entire team.

I’m going into the weekend 33 points behind Leon Haslam and it’s a pretty strange feeling as I prepare to head to the GP circuit at Brands Hatch.

My main focus, as it would be on any Superbike weekend, is to try and win every race. With the triple-header, that would give us 75 points and would at least ask a question or two of Leon.

At the same time, I’m realistic enough to know my chances of winning the title for a sixth time are slim.

If I manage to win the three races, I still need help from Leon and, if he has three clean races, it is difficult to see him finishing with few enough points to leave the door open for me.

That said, it only takes one mechanical failure or something similar for Leon – who up until now has done a good job during the Showdown – and the championship race could open up again.

I’m going in with no pressure and you never know what is going to happen in BSB.

One thing for certain is that we will be giving it everything to snatch the championship and then, if it doesn’t happen, we know we have left everything on the track.

Talking of tracks, I’m happy to be going back to Brands Hatch GP. It’s one of, if not the, most favourite tracks of mine in the country and one where I’ve had great success over the years.

It’s also a local track to me. I live no more than 40 minutes away and it means there are always plenty of friends and family there to support me.

Even though I’m so close to home, my routine won’t change. There is no temptation to travel to and from my house when I’m at Brands.

I will do what I normally do, which is arrive at the track on Thursday and stay there until Sunday night.

It just helps me get and stay in the zone – and we are going to need every bit of focus this weekend.