The weather was hot as was the racing this weekend for rounds 1&2 of the Bennetts British Superbikes Championship held at Brands Hatch this weekend.

Over 40,000 people attend race day and were treat to some excellent racing. This season there were some new and not so new faces competiting in the championship. Of the newer faces in this class were Leon Camier now riding a Superbike (as opposed to a supersport) Jonathan Rea on the full factory Honda and Tom Sykes on the Stobart Vent Axia bike joining the more established names of Greg Lavilla and Leon Haslam (Ducati Airwaves) Rio Kyonari (the defending champion) and Shane “Shakey” Byrne joining Sykes in the Stobart team. Add to this returning World Superbike star Chris Walker on the Rizla Suzuki and thisall adds up to one of the most competitive classes of motorbike racing around.

The sparks certainly flew from Greg this weekend, a great start to the championship with two race wins and maximum points for the former BSB champion.

Making his debut in this class Leon Camier had an outstanding couple of races finishing 2nd in race one and third in race two. A promising start to his BSB career.

His first ride on the factory supported Honda saw Jonathan Rea match Leon Camier efforts with a third place in race one and moving up the podium one place to second in race two.

Shane”Shakey” Byrne was re-united with his former boss Paul Bird and finished a creditable fourth in race one. Shakey was looking good for a podium finish in race two but edged off the track at about 150mph At Hawthorns.Having recovered from a very high speed crash at Snetterton last he was probably thinking oh no here we go again. But he managed to keep it upright and rejoined managing to finish in thirteenth place.

A some what dissappointing weekend for last years runner up, Leon Haslam finishing sixth in race one and fourth in race two

The Chris Walker fan club was out in force this weekend.

Despite a good qualifing session, Chris was off the pace come race day and lies sixth in the cahmpionship after the first two rounds. No doubt he will up there challenging the leaders very shortly.

Cal Cruthlow (Walker’s team mate) running back to the pits after crashing at Druids on Sundays practice.

Marshalls or should that be Cow Girls ?

Unlike thier big brother, Supersport (600 machines) only have one race over the weekend. Like most of his co-racers, this is all that was to be seen of Micheal Lafferty this weekend. His Rentless Suzuki took the win in the opening round of the championship.

The Bennetts championship provides a full support races as well. The Superstock class (essentially road going motorcycles) provides a relatively low cost entry to motorbike racing with £25,000 being the average cost to buy and prepare a bike for the season.

The Virgin Media Cup is the training ground for future stars of tomorrow. £18,000pa (+vat of course!) is the cost to enter this class. This one make series (Yamaha R6) is open this year to riders aged 17-25 and produces close races, thrills and spills - not necessarily in that order ! The prize for winning this championship is a ride with the Virgin media Superbike team the following year.

There will be more photographs on our main site shortly - check out the client area soon !!