British Superbike 2007 - update on who goes where

Raceline Photography
By blue2bikes
December 9 2006

Speculation has been rife since the end of the British Superbike Championship - usually everyone is settled, and riders are announced at the Motorcycle Show in November, and the papers speculate where each rider is going.

This year has been different, in as much that top riders who were expected to retain the rides they had throughout the 2006 season did not.

Through no fault of their own, riders like Shane Byrne did not attain the results (due to lack of pre-season testing and other problems) Rizla Suzuki were after, and was dropped by Rizla. Having had offers of a return to World Championship racing, ‘Shakey’ has made a return to the Paul Bird Motorsport Stobart Honda team, aboard the Honda FireBlade CBR1000RRs - a team he is very happy to rejoin as he won the 2003 British Superbike Championship riding a Ducati with the team.

Shane’s team-mate is the likeable Tom Sykes, who is making the step up to the Superbike class, having previously contested the 600 Supersport class - finishing in the runner-up position during the 2006 season.

Michael Rutter, having had a disastrous 2006 season by his standards, was dropped by Paul Bird at the end of the season - and although he had a good ride at the Macau Grand Prix, held last month, aboard a Stobart Honda FireBlade, it was looking like he was not going to get a competitive ride.

Michael has signed to ride for the MSS Discovery team aboard a Kawasaki. MSS Discovery are well known in the paddock for their exploits in the Supersports class and, with Michael in their team, making a move up into the Superbike class should be a good transition - with less pressure on Michael. Michael’s former team-mate Gary Mason has left the series to ride in America.

Not surprisingly, James Haydon has returned to the Virgin Mobile Yamaha team alongside Tommy Hill. James had a bad season all round this year, suffering from injuries. Having had some success with the Virgin Mobile Yamaha team during 2004, finishing eighth in the series, and with young gun Tommy as his team-mate - and the experience that James has - there will be friendly rivalry between them, as they get on very well together.

Hard man and hard riding Karl Harris was unable to obtain extra funding to gain a third bike from HRC, running the works Hondas, and has now signed to ride for the Hydrex Honda Team. Karl gives it his all when racing, and in top form he can beat anyone in the series - having missed out on a win this year after a great battle with long time friend Leon Haslam at Croft, he will almost certainly be in contention during 2007.

Steve Plater has had an up and down year within the British Superbike series, but came good during the North West 200 in Northern Ireland - taking the first ever double podium win in his career, and ending on a high note at Macau, taking victory over Michael Rutter. No news as yet as to where Steve is going to be this year, but wherever he goes you can be sure if he rides against Michael there will certainly be some great races between them.

Two other riders that as yet have to confirm where they will be are Glen Richards and Dean Thomas. It is rumoured that Dean may well return with his own team for 2007.

Already confirmed at the NEC Motorcycle show was Ryuichi Kiyonari for Honda, alongside new team-mate Jonathan Rea - the first time that King Kiyo has had a younger team-mate. This pairing will be ones to watch, as Jonathan wants to win the series, and King Kiyo wants to retain his title.

Rizla Suzuki announced that Cal Crutchlow was to be one of their riders well in advance of the NEC show, and speculation was rife that Chris Walker was to make his return to the British series after being dropped by Kawasaki from the World Superbike series.

Rizla formally announced that Chris was to be their rider if he performed well at the Race of the year at Mallory Park alongside Cal. Chris’ performance was to be more than exciting, as he not only broke the lap record but also won the race for Rizla in front of a packed circuit of Walker fans.

Will 2007 be the year that Rizla dominate again, as Cal is riding well and is
up for the win, and Chris will be backed by his legions of fans to return and
take the first ever British championship win of his career.

Leon Haslam and Gregorio Lavilla return to the series once again aboard the Ducatis, with Gregorio wanting his title back, and Leon even hungrier after losing the title to Kiyonari at the last round of series by just eight points.

Whatever happens during 2007, you can be sure that riders will be out there giving their all - to show those teams that had dropped them in favour of other riders had indeed made a mistake in not retaining them.