Shane Byrne enjoyed successful times at Snetterton in the formative years of his career and now he is determined to turn around his season there in the seventh round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship.

The former winner of the title has had a tough time on his return to domestic action after the three years in the fast-lane of World MotoGP but his technical input to the Rizla Suzuki team is making the telling difference.

At Oulton Park he was running inches down on defending champion Gregorio Lavilla as he took a determined second place, followed by a third, and then last time out at Mallory Park, despite struggling with a lack of grip Byrne was twice in the top five.

"Towards the end of those races I was running on the same pace as the leaders. Importantly, we have a few ideas on how to improve the bike further so I can get away with them and then we can really compete for the wins," explained Byrne, adding: "It's onwards and upwards from here and I've decided it's podiums for me from now on in."

Shakey has enjoyed successes over the years at the Norfolk circuit, from his club racing days, through to Superbikes: "I won my first ever British Championship race at Snetterton on a 600, so it has good memories for me, but now I intend to have more."

Byrne's team-mate James Haydon is racing against time to be fully fit, having suffered injuries to his left arm in a high speed crash during practice for the last round, and he too expects to be challenging for maximum points.

That should add to the developing front-running scraps for supremacy. Ryuichi Kiyonari put his HM Plant Honda onto top spot for only the second time this season with a strong performance at Mallory Park, but mainly it is Leon Haslam who is posing most of the questions as he hotly pursues his series leading Airwaves Ducati team-mate Lavilla.

The Spaniard is in dominant form, taking seven victories and three thirds, as he has piled up a massive 62 points lead in the title stakes. He is meticulous in his preparations and goes into these races at the Norfolk circuit, where last year he tasted victory in the afternoon's second race, expecting even better returns.

Haslam is desperate to get ahead of him here. The young Derbyshire rider has title aspirations of his own, and with no team orders is trying everything he knows to achieve that season first victory. That is also uppermost on the mind of Karl Harris.