Riders For Health 2010 – Auctioning Rossi's Helmet

The World Champion Darts player Andy Fordham along with AP Kawasaki Team Manager Alan Greig, are to launch a British Superbike Darts League for 2011 to raise funds for Riders For Health.

Fordham was spotted on the grid at the Brands Hatch round of the Superbike Championship alongside John Wainwright who was racing in the Metzeler National Superstock 600cc series.  The two met when Wainwright visited his local pub previously owned at the time by the darts player in his hometown.

Leon Haslam is also known to love the sport of darts and a match was held in the Alstare garage between the rider and Fordham.  Haslam reportedly beat Fordham before the pair began to throw darts at a picture of Max Biaggi that had been pinned to the board!

The darts league will be open to all riders and teams in the series with 100% of the nominal fee going directly to the Riders For Health fund.

Tom Grant – East Coast Yamaha

Tom Grant has been signed by the Gearlink Kawasaki team to ride for them at the Brands Hatch round of the British Supersport championship on the 8th August.

Grant was given the chance to test ride for the team last week at Mallory Park and they were so impressed with his effort they signed him to ride at the next round.

The 22-year-old Yorkshire rider finished eighth in the 2009 championship with the East Coast Yamaha team with a top finish of third place.

Grant is replacing the teams current rider Jamie Hamilton who has now parted company with the Kawasaki squad after a dismal season.  Hamilton, who is the reigning Metzeler National Superstock 600 champion, has only managed a top score of fourteenth place so far after a disastrous season which has seen him not only break his collarbone but also having his motor-home raided and all his equipment stolen.

Oulton Park

After cancellation of some of the races of the British and National Superbike championship the organisers have now rescheduled and the dates are as follows;

Round 6, British Superbike series, Race 2 at Knockhill will now take place on Saturday July 17th at the Snetterton circuit. The participants of that race are confined to those published on the Grid for Race 2 published at Knockhill on 4/7/2010.

National Superstock 600, Round 3 at Oulton Park will now run over the weekend of July 30/31st and August 1st at the Silverstone circuit, supporting the Superbike World Championship. The participants of that race are confined to those published on the Race 9 – Final Grid published at Oulton Park on 3/5/2010.  Round 5, Race 2 at Knockhill will now take place on July 17th at Snetterton. The participants of that race are confined to those published on the Race 3 and 10 – Final Grid published at Knockhill on 4/7/2010

British 125GP championship, Round 6 from Knockhill will now take place on Saturday 11th September at the Croft circuit.

The Henderson Harley Davidson XR1200 Trophy, Rounds 3 & 4 has now been incorporated into the event at Brands Hatch on the weekend of August 6/7/8 with the revised remaining rounds as follows;

Round 3 August 7th Brands Hatch GP

Round 4 August 8th Brands Hatch GP

Round 5 August 29th Cadwell Park

Round 6 August 30th Cadwell Park

Simon Andrews – Kawasaki

Simon Andrews will be back on a Kawasaki this weekend as he rides in the National Superstock 1000 support race at the British MotoGP Grand Prix.

Andrews suffered a fractured heel while racing in the World Superbike round at Valencia two-months ago as a replacement rider for Chris Vermeulen.

The British Superbike rider will be replacing the injured Conor Cummins at the Blackhorse Kawasaki team after Cummins was injured during last weeks TT.  Cummins received a back injury, a broken arm, a dislocated knee and bruised lungs in the high speed accident at the Isle Of Man and is expected to be out for the rest of the season.

Andrews is also expected to return to the British Superbike championship at the next round at Mallory Park.

Steve Plater – HM Plant Honda 2010

The current leader of the British Superstock championship Steve Plater, returned to hospital this week to undergo further tests following his accident at the practice session for the North West 200 in May.

The 41-year-old, was thought to have got off lightly with just a broken arm in the incident which saw him flying into the wall at Quarry Hill.  Steve lost the front end of his HM Plant Honda and ploughed into the wall at speed, he was attended to immediately by marshals and medics at the site and transferred to Coleraine hospital where he underwent a full medical examination.

It was thought that his head, main body and legs were fine and that he had suffered two clean breaks to the ulna and radius bones of his left arm.  The Englishman underwent surgery to have the bones pinned and plated but after complaining of further pain in his chest and shoulder he had further surgery to relieve the pressure on nerves to the arm.

It has now been discovered that Steve has also suffered damage to his neck and a break between the sixth and seventh vertebrae will need a further operation.

The Honda rider was operated on last week at a specialist hospital where a bone graft taken from his pelvis was used to realign and plate the vertebrae at the front before a second operation took place to realign the vertebrae from the back.

The operation is said to have gone well and Steve is reportedly getting back to form, he is expected to make a full recovery but will not be taking part in this years TT.

Jimmy Hill – MAP Centurion Triumph Team 2010

The Metzeler National Superstock 600 Championship took place at the Hampshire circuit of Thruxton last weekend, resulting in a tough round two for the MAP Centurion Triumph team.

Jimmy Hill was wiped out of 2^nd position on lap eight of the 14 lap race and his team-mate Josh Caygill gained his best ever result in the Championship of eighth place.

Jimmy Hill had been working hard over the weekend and was consistently in the top four throughout the weekend and was eager to gain another podium position to follow on from his win at Brands Hatch a couple of weeks ago. The youngster ended up qualifying the MAP Centurion Triumph in second place on the grid, his first front row start of the season.

Jimmy got a fantastic start and was soon leading the pack but Josh Day made an impressive pass and further went onto win the race by 11 seconds. Jimmy was locked in a fraught battle for second place and the bunch were swapping paintwork on most laps. Jimmy finally made a break on lap eight but had his rear wheel clipped by Nikki Coates into the first corner causing Jimmy to have a massive high-side.

A battered Hill said “I’m really gutted to have lost out as it’s really difficult to make up points in this Championship. The MAP Centurion Triumph team worked really hard all weekend and I hit a patch of oil this morning in warm up and went down and did some damage to the bike, Brad, my crew chief worked really hard to make sure I got out on track for the race. I got a great start and Josh Day came round the outside of me and just was gone in the distance, I got my head down and finally got into second place after a real battle and I was eager to make a break when I was clipped from behind and it threw me over the bars and that was my race done, gutted!”

On the other hand Josh Caygill struggled during qualifying and ended up in 16^th position on the grid only one second off his team-mate Jimmy. A brilliant start saw Josh lying in 13^th place after the opening lap and as the freight train unveiled Josh was in amongst it, with only two seconds separating second to 12^th place it was anyone’s race. Josh worked extremely hard to make his way through the pack and after a few incidents and some confident passing manoeuvres Josh secured a stunning eighth position.

A delighted Caygill said “It’s been a long old weekend and I got injured here last year so I just wanted to make sure I didn’t get mixed up in it all at the start and wanted to have a good battle and get a good result for the MAP Centurion Triumph team. I’m made up with the result but gutted for Jimmy getting taken out as it would have been a great result for the team. It was carnage out there and I just wanted to try and stay out of the melee and just kept pushing hard. The laps went pretty quickly and I was moving positions on every lap, I didn’t even know what position I was in so was over the moon when I was told at the end!”

In the frantic 22-lap race Hill was determined from the start to ensure that he was mixing in with it at the front. Having qualified in fifth place on the grid after the two groups were merged, Hill had been setting good, strong and consistent lap times throughout the weekend and was always looking good for a final podium position.

Hill was third after the opening lap in the National Superstock race but soon moved through to second position behind Matt Bilton. It became a four man battle at the front and all were keen to take the race win, none more so than Hill.

Hill created his own new lines and found some incredible passing positions; he swapped places with Bilton around six times in the last two laps eventually making the move to the front stick to take the win on the final lap by 0.065.

Josh Caygill came out worse off with the structure of the qualifying positions and ended up 19th on the grid after running in the top 12 allweekend.

A bad start saw the youngster boxed into the first corner and pushed back to 21st after the first lap, leaving him with a lot of work to do. Slowly working his way through the pack Caygill ended the 22-lap fraught race in 14th position despite his lap times being only 0.2 off team-mate Jimmy.

A delighted Jimmy Hill commented;

“I’m over the moon with the race result and so pleased I was able to pull that out the bag for the MAP Centurion Triumph team who have been working so hard since Xmas to put all this together for us. The race was a tough one and I knew that I had to get a good start to enable me to stay with the front runners. I’m really happy with everything but it was a real dog fight, I’d like to thank my personal sponsors Vent-Axia, SJM Air Conditioning, Stuart, Feridax, my family and the entire MAP Centurion Team for making it all happen. I would like to congratulate my brother Tommy also! I hope the rest of the season will pan out like this!”

Josh Caygill was promoted to 14th position after the third place man was
disqualified. Josh said,

“I’m fairly pleased with the result I got today, it’s pretty mental out there and when you are in amongst it, it’s hard to find some decent places to pass. I got a terrible start and was 21st after the opening lap and even though I was doing some really good lap times it was chaotic out there, I made a few passes for places but we were all bashing fairings. I’m happy with the points and really pleased for Jimmy! I would like to thank VW Commercial Vehicles and all the MAP Centurion Triumph team for all their hard work so far!”

Peter Ward – BSB Championship – Cadwell Park 2009

It has now been confirmed that the Astro Racing Team will be on the grid of the British Superbike Championship for 2010 in the Evo series with Peter Ward as their rider.

Taking a step-up from the Superstock 1000 championship, the team will be participating in their first full season with in the British Superbike class to be supported by Scott Smart.

Peter Ward, know as ‘Pesky’, competed in a number of rides during the 2007 and 2008 seasons in British Superbikes having mainly participated in the Supersport and Superstock series and so will not be totally new to the class despite having stated that he will now have to train harder to achieve his aims.

Kasey Wyatt

The Repli-Cast UK team have announced their riders for the 2010 season which will be riding in three different classes of the championship.

Kasey Wyatt is remaining with the 125cc Relentless British Superbike for his second season and is expected to be with the front runners in what is expected to be his hottest year so far.

Robbie Stewart will be moving into the National Superstock 600 series aboard Kawasaki ZX-6R Ninja, backed by Buildbase while newcomer Sam Hornsey will be filling Robbie’s seat on the Relentless British 125cc machine.

Robbie is now back to full-fitness after breaking his back in a freak accident at the Croft circuit in September when he low-sided off his bike and was thrown into the tyre wall head first.

Sam is 15-years-old and finished as runner-up in the 2008 125GP3 Championship and is expected to be the perfect replacement for Stewart.

Josh Corner is joining the teams junior academy squad for the 2010 season and will competing in the Thundersport Super Team Challenge.  The 12-year-old began his racing career in the Mini Moto series before moving up to the Aprilia 125 challenge last season.

Relentless Suzuki by TAS 2009

After his impressive ride at the Silverstone British Superbike round last weekend, Alastair Seeley will be back on the Relentless Suzuki by TAS for the seasons finale at Oulton Park.

The 2009 National Supestock Champion, made his debut in the British Superbike series aboard the new Evo specification GSX-R1000 for the Relentless Suzuki by TAS. The specifically built 2010 machine featured a Superstock engine fitted into the full British Superbike spec. rolling chassis, with a Yoshimura EM Pro kit ECU.

Seeley retired from race one due to a bolt breaking on the rear shock absorber but scored a tenth place in race two on his first outing in BSB, with team owner Philip Neill saying;

“The job is done with the Evo bike,” team owner Philip Neill said. “Alastair proved a point that the new rules will work. Let’s park that now and see what he can do on the Superbike.”

The Irish man has now been offered the opportunity to impress the team boss on the same bike ridden by Ian Lowry and Atsushi Watanabe at the Northamptonshire circuit.