Highside Superbikes

Done and dusted

2011-11-06T05:10:00.000-08:00

The 2011 World Superbike and British Superbike seasons are now over and the long wait begins for the start of the next one in March next year.

The World Superbike Championship was all about Carlos Checa who ran consistently throughout 2011 onboard his Ducati. Proving that a slight lack of top end speed is nothing to worry about when you have a bike as well set up as his clearly was, he took podiums all around the world and at a wide variety of circuits.

The British Superbike Championship was witness to one of the most amazing finishes ever seen in motorcycling history. Going into the final race of the season at the final round, the championship was between the Suzuki of John Hopkins and and Yamaha of Tommy Hill. The race finished in a final lap decider in which the two title challengers passed each other six or seven times in an adrenaline fuelled two minutes which saw Tommy Hill take the championship by a fraction of a second photo finish.

As a final note, thoughts must be with Marco Simoncelli's friends and family. The sport has lost a great rider and a superb character, RIP Marco.

And at the break

2011-08-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

The World Superbike Championship is currently on it's summer break with the next round coming in early September from the Nurburgring in Germany.

It's Carlos Checa who holds a handsome lead over the rest of the field with Max Biaggi in second place in the standings and a full 62 points further back. It has been a failry difficult year for the English so far with Leon Haslam our highest placed rider in fifth place in the standings and a huge 185 points away from the championship leader. The title race realistically looks to be between Checa, Biaggi and Melandri with Eugene Laverty the ouside bet, currently laying fourth in the championship.

Close to crunch time

2011-08-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

With one more race to go before the top six are decided for the title shoot-out, riders around sixth place in the championship will be looking to secure the final two spots. The top six riders after the next round at Cadwell Park will have their points elevated and will go into the pot to fight it out for the British Superbike title. Michael Laverty looks to be safe in fourth spot with Brookes and Kiyonari looking over their shoulders as Rutter, Mason and Kirkham are not too far behind and could potentially take the fifth and sixth places from them.

Shane Byrne and John Hopkins have looked to lead the way all season with Tommy Hill not far behind and it would be a brave man to bet against one of these three men lifting the championship trophy at the end of the season.

Hill the rain master

2011-07-18T09:41:00.000-07:00

It has been a good weekend for Tommy Hill at Oulton Park as he ate into the points of those above him in the championship standings.

Hill managed a win in the only race at Oulton Park as the second race had to be abandoned due to treacherous conditions. Shane Byrne could only manage fourth as fellow championship contender, John Hopkins crashed out of the race. Josh Brookes managed second spot on the podium, keeping his top six position in the standings intact. Rutter managed to put his wet weather riding ability to good use as he took a well-deserved third spot and the final podium position.

World Superbikes roundup

2011-07-09T15:48:00.000-07:00

As many will have noticed this blog tends to focus on the British Superbike Championship. Many of the riders in this championship aspire to go on the the world stage and battle it out for the WSBK Championship so it's time for a quick update on their season so far.

So what hope of a British winner of the 2011 WSBK Championship? Well, in a word, none. We are beyond the halfway stage of the season and the highest placed brit is Leon Camier, former BSB Champion, he lies in fifth place in the standings, 136 points down on current leader Carlos Checa and with former Grand Prix winners, Max Biaggi and Marco Melandri also standing in his way. Sixth place man Leon Haslam is finding the going tough on the BMW S1000R after his great season last year when he nearly won the championship aboard the Suzuki.

The title looks most likely to go to Spain as Carlos Checa has been close to the top step of the podium all season and at a wide variety of tracks. The veteran rider has really performed well and has got the maximum out of his Ducati while those around him have struggled to match his consistancy.

Byrne and Hopper lead the way

2011-07-09T06:42:00.000-07:00

Shane Byrne and John Hopkins are locked in a battle at the head of the BSB Championship standings, a position they have been in for much of the 2011 season. Tommy Hill is not too far behind in third place in the championship after a re-emergence of his true pace following a broken bone earlier in the season. Worryingly for the rest, another man on the move is 2010 champion Ryuichi Kiyonari. If he gets into form he will be very capable of moving quickly up the leaderboard from his current position of fourth.

Catch all the action in the next race at Oulton park in a week's time, to see if he can close the gap at the top or if Byrne and Hopkins can continue their consistant podium finishes.

Byrne still holds slender lead

2011-06-11T14:16:00.000-07:00

The British Superbike Championship is nearing the halfway point in the season and returning former champion Shane Byrne holds a slender lead over nearest rival John Hopkins. The fact that Byrne leads the championship is not that surprising, after all he is a proven race winner at this level and is also riding for one of the most successful teams in recent times, HM Plant Honda. Hopkins too has proven pedigree riding motorcyles at the top level in Moto GP and it has taken him little time to learn the tight twisty circuits on the BSB calander.

Whilst Byrne and Hopkins are flying at the front other fancied riders are faring less well. Byrne's team mate and reigning champion, Ryuchi Kiyonari finds himself outside the top six and facing a battle to compete to get back onto the podium where he doubtless belongs. Another rider strongly tipped to do well at the beginning of the season, Josh Brookes, has so far failed to make an impression on the Relentless Suzuki, surprising considering how aggressive a rider he is and how well he performed last year aboard the HM Plant Honda. Tommy Hill will also be looking to improve after his near miss last season. An injury has not helped his cause but he will need to start putting strong results together quickly or he may see Byrne and Hopkins turn the championship into a two-horse race going into the final stretch..

Suzuki come good

2011-05-29T02:58:00.000-07:00

Croft saw the emergence of the Suzuki's of the Crescent Racing team. After a slow start the team managed podiums for both of their riders and a maiden BSB race victory for John Kirkham. It has been a dissapointing start to the season for Relentless as Josh Brookes has so far been unable to get the podiums he would have been expecting.

Also starting to come good are the Kawasaki's of the MSS Colchester squad with Stuart Easton lying third in the Championship. However a major injury at the North West 200 sees the Scottish rider replaced by emerging Evo rider, Alex Lowes. An injury in warm up at the previous race meeting hampered Tommy Hill's efforts as Byrne maintained his slender lead in the Championship going into this weekend's race at Thruxton.

Byrne takes advantage

2011-05-14T09:27:00.000-07:00

Shane Byrne leads the British Superbike Championship going into this weekend's action at Croft. The returning British Superbike Champion took advantage of Tommy Hill's missfortune as he slipped on some spilt fuel which saw him miss the last two races and carry an injury into the upcoming rounds. Eager to drive home his advantage, Shane Byrne fought ahead of Laverty to grab pole position for the racing this weekend in Croft, a circuit that is loved by riders and fans alike.

It was another disappointing showing from the Suzuki teams with John Hopkins their highest placed rider, starting the race in ninth place on a grid while Josh Brookes failed to even make the top ten.

Hill and Byrne the early leaders

2011-04-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

Swan Yamaha rider Tommy Hill leads the British Superbike Championship after a dramatic opening round at Brands Hatch. The first two races of the season saw plenty of incident with Josh Brookes coming off worse as he highsided out of race one and was declared medically unfit to start in race two, despite the fact that he escaped reletively unscathed. It was a poor start to the season for Suzuki in general as their top points scorer was Jon Kirkham who finds himself tenth in the standings with eleven points on the board.

Returning former champion Shane Byrne fared much better for the HM Plant Honda team, picking up a win and a third place to secure second spot in the standings only four points behind leader Tommy Hill. There was also encouragement for Kawasaki, as Stuart Easton finished the first round in third place in the championship, all be it, a fair amount of amount of points back from Hill and Byrne.

Tinmouth set to make history

2011-04-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

Jenny Tinmouth is set to make history this Easter weekend as she becomes the first female rider to race in the British Superbike Championship. The thirty one year old from Ellesmere Port is hoping she can mix it with the rest of the field and show that women need not be discouraged from Motorcycle Racing.

Jenny will compete on the Aprilia RSV-4 for the Splitlath Motorsport team alongside experienced campaigner, Hudson Kennaugh. Here's hoping she has a successful season and picks up some strong results.

Excitement builds...

2011-04-17T03:19:00.000-07:00

It's under a week until the start of the 2011 British Superbikes Championship and as usual there's plenty to be getting excited about. As is traditional in the championship, the first race of the season kicks off at Brands Hatch, around the Indy Circuit.

At this stage of the season most of the teams will be ironing out any little niggles and preparing for the start of the Brands Hatch weekend.

You can catch all the action on British Eurosport with highlights being shown on ITV1 and ITV4.

Big lineup for BSB

2011-04-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

The British Superbike season begins on the 22nd April at Brands Hatch and the lineup, as in previous seasons, looks impressive. 38 riders will line up on the start line of the first Superbike race of 2011 with eight nations represented and seven manufacturers. Click here for the official full entry list.

Donington springs surprises

2011-03-28T14:14:00.000-07:00

With the Donington round of the World Superbikes Championship now complete, the one major surprise of the weekend was the amazing performance of Smrz in race one. The Czech rider took second place on the podium and led for much of the race after a good start from local boy, Leon Haslam. Melandri took race one victory after crusing through the field on a seemingly extremely stable Yamaha R1.

Race two went much more to script with Carlos Checa taking the win and Melandri taking his second podium finish of the weekend. Leon Camier was the top British finisher as he managed a strong showing to finish on the third step of the podium. Fans were again treated to a good start from Leon Haslam, only to see him fade in the closing stages and run off track, eventually taking fourth place after some battling overtaking.

Walker on the grid

2011-03-19T14:07:00.000-07:00

This week saw great news for Chris Walker fans as he confirmed that he would again be part of the British Superbike grid. The popular midlander will race a Kawasaki ZX10R for Primo Racing. Though he is unlikely to be competing for race wins, heres hoping the veteran rider can still mix it with the young guns and grab a few good results throughout the 2011 season. Check out this post on the British Superbikes website for more information.

Kiyo to look for fitting tribute

2011-03-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

British Superbike rider and title contender, Ryuichi Kiyonari has pledged to dedicate any race victories at the first round of the season at Brands Hatch to victims and those affected by the recent disasters in Japan. The popular Japanese ride, who again rides for HM Plant Honda, will begin his title defence in late April when the 2011 British Superbike season begins.

Donington ready for action

2011-03-12T08:08:00.000-08:00

The first Superbikes action of the year for eager British fans is only two weeks away at the recently restored Donington Park in Leicestershire. Donington's recent problems are now a distant memory as they look forward to hosting World Superbike action March 25th -27th followed up by British Superbikes later on in the year.

With so many British riders in this year's World Superbike lineup, what hope a British race winner? Tom Sykes, Jonathan Rea and James Toseland will all be looking to come away with strong points from the European World Superbike round but I'm tipping local pocket rocket, Leon Haslam to use his extensive knowledge of the circuit and end the weekend on the top step of the podium.

Championship predictions

2011-03-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

World Superbike Championship

We may only be one race into the 2011 World Superbike Championship but it is already clear that reigning champion Max Biaggi is going to be a difficult man to wrestle the title away from. I'm tipping him for the title even at this early stage because he has proven over many seasons that he can consistently produce podium finishes.

So what of British hopes in 2011? Expect Tom Sykes to go much better this year with the greatly improved Kawasaki a much better track tool out of the crate. It looks as though Jonathan Rea will be able to mount a serious championship challenge aboard the proven Honda Fireblade whereas strong riders Leon Haslam and James Toseland may need more development work to come from their BMW.

British Superbike Championship

The British Championship has not yet begun but it is clear that the racing this year at the front will likely be as close as ever with Tommy Hill, Michael Laverty, Shane Byrne, Ryuichi Kiyonari, Josh Brookes and former MotoGP rider John Hopkins all in with a realistic chance of claiming the much coveted title.

Personally I believe it might be Tommy Hill's year. After coming so close last year, he proved he has the strength and consistency to battle at the front but he'll have to deal with tough competition, not least in the form of reigning and three times champion, Kiyonari who will again be riding in familar surroundings for the factory supported HM Plant Honda team.

Paint it black

2011-03-06T12:03:00.000-08:00

The Swan Yamaha team joined fellow British Superbike contenders Relentless Suzuki in testing in bikes painted in simple matt black with no sponsorship paintwork. Check out the official British Superbikes page for the latest images.

Hill climbs ahead

2011-03-06T07:03:00.000-08:00

It's been a good start to testing for British Superbike rider Tommy Hill as he topped the timesheets in preseason testing at Cartagena.

The popular english rider has made the switch to Swan Yamaha this season following a dramatic end to 2010 when he came so close to winning the championship with Worx Crescent Suzuki before dramatically crashing in the penultimate round, opening the door for Kiyonari to take another BSB crown.

When he's not throwing a 200 bhp superbike around twisting tarmac, Tommy is also a talented graphic design artist. You can visit his website here.