This weekend will see the curtain come down on another entertaining MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship.

Once again Shane Byrne is right in the mix for the title, and the defending champion will be doing all he can to keep Josh Brookes from taking his title away.

It will be one hell of a task for Byrne as Brookes arrives in Kent in the strongest position he has ever been to secure a first MCE BSB crown for the Milwaukee Yamaha team and if he pulls of the feat this weekend he will become the first Australian rider since Troy Bayliss in 1999 to celebrate title victory.

Brookes currently holds the advantage over arch rival Byrne, but the war between the pair will continue to rage for the final three wins of the season and the PBM Kawasaki rider hasn’t given up hope of snatching an unprecedented fifth crown at his home circuit.

Whilst the Brookes versus Byrne contest continues, the pair will still have to fight off their closest rivals on the Grand Prix circuit in their quest for title honours. James Ellison, Tommy Bridewell and Stuart Easton all have scored victories this season whilst a further nine different riders have already stood on the podium including Michael Laverty and Dan Linfoot who are desperate to hit the top spot this weekend.

America’s John Hopkins may not be in with a chance of championship glory this season after joining the Lloyds British Moto Rapido Ducati team mid-way through the campaign, but after missing out on the title by 0.006s back in 2011 the former MotoGP contender will have high hopes of a winning end to his year.

As the #BattleofBrands rages on track, on Sunday the iconic sound of the Rolls Royce Merlin engine will ring out above Brands Hatch as the legendary Spitfire is scheduled to perform a display in the build up to the first MCE BSB race of the day on Sunday.

Speaking ahead of the weekend, Shakey said: “Obviously right now we are not in the best of places; having won two championships under the Showdown format I know exactly what I need to do in order to win championships, but things just haven’t been going our way. That said, I am not one to dwell on bad results and the first race at Silverstone was good and I enjoyed it a lot, coming through from the fourth row to finish second and then start on pole for race two. I had an issue which meant we were unable to fight which was incredibly frustrating. The team have regrouped and we will be doing everything possible to come back in the best possible shape for Brands Hatch.

“The target can be nothing less than three wins at Brands Hatch. Potentially we may lose the championship this year, but if that happens I feel like we lost it, we didn’t get beaten to it because at the moment it is incredibly difficult to get near, but we will come back stronger because I don’t like being P2 and I don’t intend to finish P2 this year. I will be giving it my all to win all three races and see what happens from there.

“The Brands Hatch GP circuit is one of my favourite circuits anywhere in the world and I absolutely love the place, it is just awesome and there is no better meeting. It has been equally cruel and kind to me but I have had some really strong results there which I hope to emulate at the final round. You know I didn’t turn into a dolloper overnight in the same way that my rival didn’t turn into Valentino Rossi overnight so we need to do a lot better next weekend so we can try and win these final three races.”

Images courtesy of www.psp-images.co.uk