The British Superbike Championship (BSB) is the leading road racing superbike United Kingdom. championship in the
The championship is managed and organised by MCRCB-Events. The commercial and television rights have been delegated to MotorSport Vision The Series and Race Director is Stuart Higgs. Event marshals are provided by the Racesafe Marshals Association.
Two annual championships are awarded, one for riders and one for manufacturers. A "Cup" class exists for riders running in privately owned teams; past champions of this include Shane Byrne in 2001, and James Ellison in 2004. This cup will be replaced in 2010 by an Evolution Class featuring less developed bikes.
Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki will be the manufacturers for the 2009 season, after Ducati withdrew from the championship, although a 2008-spec bike was privately ran during the last two rounds. For 2010 Ducati, Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki were joined for the first time in BSB by KTM, BMW and Aprilia who will run a evo spec bikes.
From 2008, the championship followed the Superbike World Championship in appointing Pirelli as the single control tyre supplier, until 2010. Previously most teams used Dunlop tyres, although the factory Hondas used Michelin and the factory Yamahas used Pirellis.
Recent history
2005
In 2005, the overall championship was won by Spanish rider Gregorio Lavilla on a Ducati 999 F04 (1000 cc vee-twin), ahead of 1000 cc in-line four Hondas ridden by Japanese rider Ryuichi Kiyonari and Michael Rutter. 2004 champion John Reynolds endured an injury-hit season, after which the veteran (he also won the 1992 and 2001 championships) announced his retirement from racing. The 2003 champion Shane 'Shakey' Byrne returned to the series for 2006 on the Suzuki Reynolds vacated.
2006
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 at the final round in Brands Hatch in front of a capacity crowd and a reported 1.5 million live TV viewers, with both riders each winning one race. It was Kiyonari who lifted the trophy 8 points ahead of the Second place Leon Haslam with Gregorio Lavilla third. The move to ITV vastly increased the viewing figures by a reported 450% over the figures for 2005.
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.
2007
In 2007 the championship featured 13 meetings, including a single overseas event at Mondello Park in Ireland, each featuring 2 races. 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.
Kiyonari won the rider's championship, with Jonathan Rea in second place and Haslam finishing third. Honda won the manufacturer's championship.
2008
The 2008 championship featured 12 meetings, all taking place within the UK and each featuring 2 races. The series is now live on British Eurosport, with highlights on Channel 4 within the next few days. 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
The reigning double-champion Ryuichi Kiyonari left the series to compete in the World Superbike Championship during the 2008 season, as did Gregorio Lavilla and Jonathan Rea. Chris Walker and Tommy Hill went to the World Supersport class.
From the start of the season, Ducati's Shane Byrne dominating over team-mate Leon Camier and the HM Plant Hondas of Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow. Which was mainly the pattern for the rest of the season, with Byrne comfortably taking the championship at the end of the season, having scored podium finishes in all but 3 races/ Suzuki's Tom Sykes became more competitive as the year went on.
2009
A much changed rider line-up graced the grids for the 2009 season, after Shane Byrne, Leon Haslam and Tom Sykes left to join the World Superbike Championship and Cal Crutchlow left to join the World Supersport class. The Airwaves team switched to Yamahas, and no Ducatis entered the series full-time. 2009 also sees a return to the BSB for Chris Walker on a Rob Mac Racing Yamaha. Former World Supersport rider Josh Brookes and reigning British Supersport champion Glen Richards joined HM Plant Honda. Sylvain Guintoli moved from Moto GP to join the Crescent Suzuki team, however a crash with Brookes before a race wrecked his season
The season was mainly dominated by the Yamaha of Leon Camier who set a new record of 14 race wins in a season at event 8 of 12, such was his domination of the championship, beating the previous record of 13 by Niall Mackenzie in the 1997 season. 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 supposted 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.
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