British Superbike Championship

2006 British Supersport Race at Thruxton Circuit

The British Superbike Championship began in 1988, with bikes conforming to 750cc TT Formula I regulations, which the championship used through to 1993, when Superbike regulations were adopted.

Niall Mackenzie was the most successful rider of the 1990s, with three titles. Other past champions include Neil Hodgson, Australian Troy Bayliss and Steve Hislop. Chris 'the Stalker' Walker has finished as runner up 4 times. Many riders from the series have gone on to race in the Superbike World Championship or MotoGP.

The 2006 British Superbike Championship was won by Ryuichi Kiyonari, in what was one of the most exciting climaxes to a British Superbike season in years. Kiyonari fought off the challenge of Ducati powered Leon Haslam and Gregorio Lavilla at the final round in Brands Hatch in front of a capacity crowd and a reported 1.5 million live TV viewers, with Kiyonari and Haslam each winning one race, and Lavilla crashing and having an engine problem in both races.

The 2009 British Superbike Championship was mainly dominated by the Yamaha of Leon Camier who set a new record of 14 race wins in a season at event eight of twelve, such was his domination of the championship, beating the previous record of 13 by Niall Mackenzie in the 1997 season.[7] Guintoli, Brookes and Richards all missed races, allowing Stuart Easton of Hydrex Honda and Simon Andrews of MSS Colchester Kawasaki to challenge.

It was claimed that BSB was the biggest supported British racing series,

During 2009, 368,000 people attended BSB events across the country and 8,000,000 fans watched 310 hours of television on the live Eurosport and delayed ITV coverage[8]

For 2010, the Privateers cup was replaced by the Evolution Class. MSVR stated that "It will be open to anyone in the series from the official manufacturer-backed teams through to independent entries and will allow homologated machines with full Superbike racing rolling chassis to retain the very important visual impression but engines will have to be built to very stringent "Stock" regulations. Along with standard engines a series specified control ECU device that eliminates any form of traction control, launch control and anti-wheelie devices will be compulsory"[9][10][11]

Qualifying was also altered, with the "Roll for Pole" only setting the grid for race one of each weekend. This is due to the race two grid being set by the fastest laps of each rider in race one. Also introduced is a "second chance" system if a rider crashes on lap one, that rider will only drop eight places from where they started the first race. At the pair of triple-race meetings, the same rules apply for race two, but will also be applied for race three.[12]

Being a national championship, the British Superbike Championship has visited circuits throughout the United Kingdom, as well as European venues, over its history. In 2014, the series visits nine different tracks in England, Scotland and the Netherlands. These tracks are: Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit, Knockhill Racing Circuit, Thruxton Circuit, Cadwell Park, Donington Park, TT Circuit Assen and Silverstone Circuit.

In the past, the BSB has visited Croft Circuit, Mallory Park and Rockingham Motor Speedway in England, Mondello Park in Ireland and Pembrey Circuit in Wales.

Superbike racing motorcycles are derived from standard production models. In the past, however, manufacturers took advantage of loopholes in the rules to create "homologation specials" — motorcycles with low production numbers made especially for racing.

Motorcycles that raced in the British Superbike Championship include:

• BMW Motorrad: BMW S1000RR (currently)
• Ducati: Ducati 916/955, Ducati 996 RS, Ducati 998 RS, Ducati 998 F02, Ducati 999 F04, Ducati 1098, Ducati 1199 Ducati Panigale V4 (currently)
• Honda: RC30, RC45, RC51, CBR1000RR (currently)
• Kawasaki: ZXR750, ZX-7RR, ZX-10R (currently)
• Suzuki: GSX-R750, GSX-R1000 (currently)
• Yamaha: FZR750, YZF750, YZF-R7, YZF-R1 (currently)
• MV Agusta: MV Agusta F4

Withdrawn Motorcycles

• Norton: Norton rotary F1
• KTM: KTM 1190 RC8

• For 2010 a change to the qualifying system means that riders will only "qualify" for race one, (or race one and two if it is a 3 race weekend). The grid for the other race will be decided by the fastest lap in the previous race.[8]

Currently, the BSB is supported by four main support series. These being:

• The British Supersport Championship: acting as a lower division of the main BSB[14]
• The National Superstock 1000 Championship[14]
• The National Superstock 600 Championship[14]
• The British Motostar Championship

The move to ITV vastly increased the viewing figures by a reported 450% over the figures for 2005.[15]

During the 2006 season ITV1's BSB coverage attracted an average UK adult audience of 962,000 per round with a peak audience of more than 1.5 million for the cliff-hanger final leg at Brands Hatch[16]

Races were covered live by ITV and Sky Sports.

Over the twelve BSB rounds, the 'live' ITV1 coverage attracted an average adult audience of some 11,552,000, which equates to an average viewership of 962,000 per round and 10.68% audience share with 317,100 attending the twelve rounds, with 270,000 viewers on "delayed" Sky Sports transmission

For the 2008 championship, the series was now live on British Eurosport, with highlights on Channel 4 within the next few days.[17] This was a step down from where the BSB had previously been having an effect on the viewing figures

The total UK BSB TV audience in 2008 was 7 million compared to 11 million in 2007 – which averages at 600,000 per round which was basically split 50:50 between Eurosport and Channel 4[18]

• britishsuperbike.com Official website