When the Bennett's British Superbike Championship luck goes with you, it REALLY goes with you - and you've only got to look at Shane 'Shakey' Byrne for proof of that so far.

As Monday's races showed, right now Shakey can't put a foot wrong, even when he tries to nobble himself out on track.

He managed to hold off a rapidly-closing Leon Haslam in race one and in the second outing, despite nearly crashing early on in the proceedings, Shakey still managed to grab another win. That's his third win out of four races so far. It's worth bearing in mind also that the last time Shakey did the double at Oulton Park was in 2003 - the year he won the BSB title.

But while Shakey was out up front, doing his thing, it was the action behind him that left title rivals all over the place.

Consider the mixed fortunes of Karl Harris, Cal Crutchlow, Tom Sykes and Leon Haslam to the shiny, shiny raceday enjoyed by Shakey.

Karl crashed out of both Superbike races in Cheshire. Tally that with his mechanical retirement in the first race a couple of weeks ago at Thruxton and then that horrible crash that left him with a mouthful of Suzuki (in which Karl was an innocent bystander who was caught up in the melee, by the way) in the second and it's an incredible dose of bad luck that so far has seen Karl Harris and the Rob Mac Yamaha lads score nothing.

Then there's Leon Haslam. The HM Plant Honda rider was, and still is, widely tipped as one of the main title favourites for this year - but his season has started off like a sick dog with the shakes. In the first race at Thruxton Leon was sidelined with a mechanical failure, in the second a badly blistered rear tyre robbed him of what would have been a higher-placed finish.

At Oulton Leon suffered a massive high-side in qualifying, then almost managed to pip Shakey across the line in race one but in the second race another coming together between Leon and Tom Sykes saw Tom fall off and Leon have to take to the grass and drop to an eventual fourth place in the race.

But the drama wasn't over yet, late last night Leon was stripped of his position and 13 points scored in that second race. The Suzuki team who field Sykes protested the decision claiming that Haslam rode in a dangerous way. Leon's team appealed against the claim and after much deliberation by Race Control it was decided that Leon would indeed lose out.

Speaking to him late last night for the British Eurosport Bennett's BSB Highlight Show Leon told me: "I don't think I rode dangerously, Tom had made a mistake coming out of the previous corner and I made a move on the inside on the brakes into the next turn.

"I can't believe that Suzuki have protested me. It was a racing incident, as simple as that. I didn't ride too aggressively, it was all fair. Last year when Cal Crutchlow was riding for Suzuki and he virtually T-boned Riyuichi Kiyonari on the HM Plant Honda at Donington, Honda didn't say or do anything about it."

Which is a good point. But still means that Leon had a rubbish time of it again out on track.

As did his team-mate Cal Crutchlow. Cal looked so, so good early on at Oulton. He scored a great pole position in qualifying, over half a second faster than Shakey, and was solid out on track. When the rain fell at the start of the first race Cal was one of the fallers.

In the second he fell again, only this time at the 160mph Druids turn - at the time of writing there's some rumour around the paddock that his subsequent injuries may force him to miss the upcoming Brands Hatch round this weekend.

And then there's Tom Sykes. Caught up in that collision with Haslam at Thruxton Tom was very animated towards the Honda rider immediately afterwards to say the least, things may have calmed down enough before Oulton but again it was the Haslam and Sykes show that stole the headlines and again the Suzuki man was left without a single point in the second race, despite having lead proceedings early on.

I never thought we would have this much action, controversy and headline-grabbing events in the first two rounds of the series. It's just amazing and, Shakey's good luck aside, makes every round absolutely vital viewing for any and every petrol head. It would be hard to call if everyone was staying upright, throw in the highside, slides and now behind-the-scenes battles and it's just impossible.

Oulton was simply magnificent. For both the right and the most wrong of reasons.

Great stuff.

Tony Carter / Eurosport