Lowes: It's still all to play for

Samsung Honda's Alex Lowes still has the MCE British Superbike title firmly in his sights after a sharing the spoils with main rival Shane 'Shakey' Byrne at the penultimate Showdown round at Silverstone.

Lowes narrowly triumphed in race one on the CBR1000RR Fireblade before Byrne turned the tables in a dramatic end to race two, mugging Lowes right on the line in a photo-finish to win by 0.012 seconds.

With one round remaining at Brands Hatch on October 20, Byrne - who was nursing a hip injury after a big spill in practice - leads the championship by one point and 23-year-old Lowes is ready to launch one final challenge to become British champion.

"It was a great first race with 'Shakey' and it was really nice after the mistake at Assen. I am pretty lucky that he wasn't fully fit as that race could have been even more difficult so fair play to him and that is why he is champion," he said.

"It was a fantastic second race and I said to 'Shakey' afterwards again that races like that are what we live for.

"You obviously want to come out on top but even to finish second in that one left me with a smile on my face.

"We improved our pace for race two and the Samsung Honda was great; I tried to push again at the end of the race but fair play to 'Shakey' and now we go to Brands Hatch pretty level with just one point in it. It is still all to play for."

Frenchman Freddy Foray, deputising for the injured Ryuichi Kiyonari, finished 11th and 15th.