The 26 year old Minster, Kent rider beat defending champion Steve Hislop in the opening encounter before repeating the feat ahead of main championship rival Michael Rutter in race two to leave the Hampshire circuit 41 points to the good at the quarter distance stage.

In race one, ‘Shakey’ took the lead from fellow Ducati rider Rutter on lap three before pulling away from the field to win by 4.8 seconds in the 21 lap race aboard his Ducati F02. Pole setter Byrne’s cause was aided further by Hislop outpacing Rutter on the final lap.

In race two, Byrne took the lead on lap seven and went on to dominate the race once again to take victory, this time by 2.7 seconds from Rutter to complete his first ever double win in his fifth year in the premier class.

A delighted Shakey said afterwards: "I am pleased with that. A massive thanks to Birdy, Phil, my crew chief and everyone in the team. It’s a good weekend for MonsterMob."

Team mate, Supersport rider Stuart Easton made it three out of three by scoring his first win of the season when he romped to a superb start to finish win on his 748 Ducati.

The 18-year-old Scot made easy work of the 20 lap race, taking the lead on the first lap to win by 10.6 seconds from nearest rival Karl Harris (Honda). Stuart also set a new lap record in the race of 1m17.841s to add to his pole position.

The result moves the Hawick rider up to second place in the Championship.

"That was just a fantastic weekend. We were quickest in practice, got pole and then got the lap record in the race, what more can you do? Hopefully I am starting to prove the doubters wrong who wrote me off at the start of the season. Now I’m up to second in the Championship and hopefully we can build on that" said the Scot.

Team owner Paul Bird was also delighted with his team’s performance. "It doesn’t come any better than that. It’s a gentlemen’s full set. We can now look forward to Oulton Park in two weeks’ time and hopefully continue our success there."

Superbike Results
Race One - 1, Shane Byrne (Ducati) 26m58.706s, 2, Steve Hislop (Yamaha) 27m03.556s, 3, Michael Rutter (Ducati) 27m04.489s, 4, Glen Richards (Kawasaki) 27m07.508s, 5, Steve Plater (Honda) 27m07.633s, 6, Sean Emmett (Ducati) 27m08.617s, 7, Gary Mason (Yamaha) 27m10.438s, 8, Mark Heckles (Honda) 27m20.136s, 9, Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) 27m20.260s, 10, John Crawford (Ducati) 27m21.187s.

Race Two - 1, Shane Byrne (Ducati) 28m11.120s, 2, Michael Rutter (Ducati) 28m13.855s, 3, Glen Richards (Kawasaki) 28m13.964s, 4, Steve Plater (Honda) 28m15.185s, 5, Steve Hislop (Yamaha) 28m17.273s, 6, Gary Mason (Yamaha) 28m22.122s, 7, Sean Emmett (Ducati) 28m26.053s, 8, Mark Heckles (Honda) 28m26.480s, 9, Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) 28m39.017s, 10, Dean Ellison (Ducati) 28m39.366s.

Superbike Championship Standings after Round 3 - 1: Shane Byrne (Ducati) 140pts, 2: Michael Rutter (Ducati) 99pts, 3: Glen Richards (Kawasaki) 72pts, 4: Gary Mason (Yamaha) 59pts, 5: Yukio Kagayama (Suzuki) 58pts, 6: Steve Plater (Honda) 51pts, 7: Steve Hislop (Yamaha) 50pts, 8: Scott Smart (Kawasaki) 40pts, 9: John Crawford (Ducati) 39pts, 9: Sean Emmett (Ducati) 39pts

Supersport

Honda Racing’s Karl Harris maintained his position at the top of the British Supersport points table when he finished second in today’s British Supersport race at Thruxton. Three consecutive podium finishes in as many rounds means that the Sheffield rider now leads the championship by a massive 24 points.

Having qualified second fastest on the grid, Harris got the holeshot before being pushed wide by Stuart Easton. Undeterred, the 23-year-old Honda Racing rider set off after the current Supersport Champion, closely followed by Leon Haslam.

Soon after, Haslam retired due to a technical problem with his Ducati, as did Snetterton race winner Michael Laverty, so it was down to the two Padgetts’ Honda CBR600s of John Crockford and Adrian Coates to battle it out for third position with Tom Sykes and Simon Andrews.

In front of this battle, which raged throughout the remainder of the 20-lap race, Harris rode consistently fast and intelligently to safeguard his second place, knowing that he didn’t have to win to maintain his championship lead. The race was eventually won by Easton, with Harris picking up 20 points for his excellent ride. The remaining podium position was filled by John Crockford, also on a Honda CBR600RR.

Karl Harris: “I’ve got to hand it to Stuart Easton, he’s been on it all weekend and I just couldn’t stay with him. Once I got the message that Laverty was out and the pressure was off I decided to take the sensible option – there was no point crashing and ending up with nothing and I was miles ahead of anyone else. I want to win the title and sometimes that means using your head and sacrificing race wins in favour of championship points. I’m still leading the points table and that’s the way I intend it to stay.”

Supersport Result - 1, Stuart Easton (Ducati) 26m13.654s, 2, Karl Harris (Honda) 26m24.261s, 3, John Crockford (Honda) 26m28.923s, 4, Simon Andrews (Yamaha) 26m29.538s, 5, Tom Sykes (Yamaha) 26m30.869s, 6, Adrian Coates (Honda) 26m33.422s, 7, Rob Frost (Kawasaki) 26m33.745s, 8, Kieran Murphy (Kawasaki) 26m34.215s, 9, Tom Tunstall (Yamaha) 26m39.979s, 10, Shane Norval (Yamaha) 26m40.504s.

Supersport Championship Standings After Round 3 - 1: Karl Harris 65pts, 2: Stuart Easton (Ducati) 41pts, 3: John Crockford 36pts,
4: Adrian Coates 34pts, 5: Michael Laverty 33pts, 5: Simon Andrews 33pts, 7: Rob Frost 25pts, 8: Tom Sykes 21pts, 9: Craig Jones 16pts, 9: Tom Tunstall 16pts