The road to Superbike.

The Bennetts British Superbike championship is regarded as the strongest domestic championship in the world. It is the place to come to cut your teeth, make a name for yourself and then move onto greater things. This season saw three world class riders battling it out for the title, which shows the level that British racing has reached. So how do our young up and coming riders get the chance to race in this class, where do they need to be to get noticed?

If you attend BSB rounds on a regular basis you will be aware of the support races namely the British Supersport Championship and the Metzeler National Superstock Championship. Both of which had nail biting on track action with Cal Crutchlow, Tom Sykes and Eugene Laverty fighting hard for the win in Supersport. Superstock also had its own key protagonists, Superstock Champion Brendan Roberts, Aaron Zanotti, Luke Quigley, Steve Brogan and John McGuinness regularly mixed it at the front.

Watching from the side lines it is hard for a lay person such as myself to distinguish which is the most talented of the riders and who is likely to move up to Superbike and make a go of it. But in my own thinking I would plump for the Superstock lads purely because they have experience of the bigger machinery, however it seems to be the Supersport class that gets the attention of the BSB teams when looking for new riders.

I canvassed a few riders to see what they thought starting with eleven times TT winner, John McGuinness. "Anybody who gets on a good Superbike thinks they are just going to set the world on fire, but it is difficult; to ride a Superbike you need to understand how it works and how the tyres work and change your riding style accordingly. Maybe the Superstock bike is better as you seem to stop the bike, turn them, set them up on the fat part of the tyre and blast them out of the corner," he said, "On the Supersport bike you are carrying loads of corner speed like you would do on a 250, so looking at it that way a Superstock bike is probably better for progression. Superstock bikes now are 170hp out the box, just another 20hp and that is Superbike power. We are only lapping a few seconds slower on the stock bikes and we are on roads tyres, and road suspension. They aren't far away from a Superbike. Let's go big, Superstock!"

Ian Hutchinson who has been racing in both Supersport and Superstock this year took a similar view to his road race rival McGuinness. "Initially as a Superstock rider for the last couple of years I thought 1000cc bike would get you more track knowledge basically from the engine size for the Superbike class. Unfortunately the Superstock class doesn't get much attention from the BSB teams. They see it as low budget class, which it is meant to be, low budget, low cost to be at British championship rounds. It is not really proving to be stepping stone to Superbikes. With Supersport you've got a hell of a job swapping from a Sport bike to a Superbike as they are totally different in carrying corner speed. It is a totally different way of riding but that is where they seem to look for Superbike riders. I don't really know what they look at to see it but I think Superstocks gives you more of a breeding ground for moving onto Superbikes," concluded Hutchy.

One high profile rider who has successfully made the move from Supersport to Superbike is Karl Harris and he of course is fully behind Supersport as the feeder class to BSB largely due to the technical similarities of the 600s and the Superbikes, but he did concede that the riding style is different and takes time to adjust to. "I think Supersport myself because the Supersport bike is more of a mini Superbike. Probably not as dramatic as that but the stuff you can change on it, where as a Superstock bike is pretty much bog standard. For me I would say Supersport it is definitely a good class to come from," said Harris, "In Supersport the riding style is different as you need to carry more corner speed, on the Superbike it is totally different more like stop the thing and get it out there as quick as possible. I've adapted to it now but last year I struggled a little bit some things were not right. Sport is a very strong class now as it has been for a few years it is very, very tough."

So we seem to have agreed that the riding style is shared between Superstock and Superbike, but it is the technical side of things that brings Supersport in line with Superbike. Rider feed back and knowledge of what his bike is doing and how to counteract that is paramount to setting up a bike. If a rider can't give feed back then it is going to make things very difficult unless you have a very talented mechanic to hand. The Supersport machines have more variables that can be adjusted unlike the Superstock bikes, which as the name says, are Stock standard machines.

To get some technical input I spoke to Mark Hanna Rizla Suzuki's Chassis Technician and who has been a race mechanic for twenty years. Mark said, "I think Supersport is the stepping stone to Superbike class. I think you will learn a lot more as you are allowed to run the full electronics package that we run on our Superbikes. There is full telemetry on the suspension and after market ignition systems for fuelling. You can also tune your engine on a 600 and use after market clutches like we do. Superstock bikes are road bikes with power commander race pipes - a road bike really."

I went on to speak to Rizla Suzuki's former manager Robert Wicks, "Superstock is obviously closest in engine capacity and everything else but the step up is a massive one. I mean we've had people like Hudson Kennaugh the former South African Superbike Champion ride the bike; we've had Brendan Roberts on it all be it for a brief period and I think it is a natural place to go and look but I think that most of the guys in Superstock are youngsters coming through. You almost want them to have that progression through Supersport or go somewhere else, like European Superstock and then come back so that they get more race craft and experience," he said.

Billy Nutt (team owner and manager) also agreed with Wicks' view in that there is a huge gap between Superstock and Superbike, however Nutt was quick to point out that is largely due to the technical differences. "I think the biggest problem is people think they can hop off one bike and onto another and move up the pack right away. It is not as simple as that because in stock you run a treaded tyre where as you are on slicks in Superbike. But the biggest problem with Superstocks is there is not a lot of variation in the set up where with Superbike there is so much that can be done with set up," he explained, "With the 600s there would be a bit more in the setting up of them but you are still running on treaded tyres which is not a problem but there is a bit of a difference in it."
Wicks went on to emphasise the Supersport route and the possibility of running in Europe first, "You look at someone like Tom Sykes, Tom rode for Rizla Suzuki before I joined, he stood in and did a reasonable job. I think it has some impact, you look to someone like Cal Crutchlow, and he would get on the bike and be absolutely fine. It is just a period of adapting to it, there is no reason why Supersport guys couldn't make the step up. Or they could go to European Superstock and come back it is a good proving ground with lots of technical tracks and you get the experience and the benefit of being in Europe."

Finally, I spoke to Niall MacKenzie who had yet another different opinion and that is we should be encouraging younger kids into the sport, letting them come up through the ranks and learn their race craft on smaller bikes which can then be applied to the bigger machinery. "I think progression is the key, there are riders who come through 125s and then we've got fantastic riders now like Eugene Laverty in Supersport, Jonathan Rea that was in Supersport he is now in Superbike and proving he can run with some of the best riders in the world," said MacKenzie, "I think it is good if the riders do learn their craft in the smaller classes for the younger riders and come up through the ranks step by step rather than just jumping on a four stroke bike right away. I think you can probably get on a Supersport bike for your first time and get stuck in a bit of a rut and you don't understand a lot of what goes on in the smaller classes which does teach you to be a good rider."

It appears that the Superstock bikes teach the rider the riding technique required for Superbike, Supersport teaches him about set up, a move to Europe will hone his skills and then he is ready for BSB - easy eh? At the end of the day a lot of it boils down to sheer talent and having the right attitude as Billy Nutt went on to say, "It is definitely hard as it is not only the class they are riding in it is the guy and his attitude. To be honest I'd be looking more at the rider himself than the class he came from. If he is going well in Superstock then he has experience of the big bikes and if he is going well in the 600s he will have a bit more experience with regard to the set up of the bike. I would be looking at the competitor more then class he is coming from."

A rider needs to choose his class and his path carefully as they don't all lead to BSB.

Louise Cain