MID-WAY THROUGH THE MADNESS
BENNETTS BRITISH SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
By the time you lot feast your eyes on this column, K nockhill and Brands will be j ust a distant memory in what has been an incredible rollercoaster of a season – and we’re still only half way through which is absolutely bonkers. With ( arguably) the title favourite out of the running as well, it’s paved the way for the nippers to come forward and take the charge, and they’re biting at the heels of the established elite…
Which is ex actly why I reckon this year will be the closest to date. These young whippersnappers like Brad Ray and Jake Dix on are confidently fast now, and with Shakey on the side-lines it’s only going to encourage themmore – and I’ve got a funny feeling that Glenn Irwin will be able to step up to the plate and j oin that regular front-running party. He’s devastatingly fast, has all the resources behind him now and is brimming with confidence and ex perience… so much so it might even be a good bet to place at the end of the year!
It seems like 2018 has really been the breakthrough year of the yoof, but someone else who’s been really impressive is Danny Buchan. After absolutely destroying the National Superstock Championship twice, DB has always had the pace, but a few turbulent years in Superbikes of crashing and confidence knocking has seen him struggle way more than ex pected – and it looks j ust like he’s finally found his way with the FS- 3 sq uad, building throughout the year. If he keeps it up, you could see the Essex lad sneak into that top six .
But let’s not forget the old guard, as finally we see Josh Brookes back where he knows he belongs: on that bloody box . It’s been a long time coming to get that McAMS Yamaha working j ust right, but with a whole host of new parts ( including an engine) it looks like he’s getting closer to the sweet spot – which is a dangerous concept when you look at how he dominated back in ’15. No matter what happens though, things aren’t going to be easy with Haslam absolutely on fire. Being hot property at the moment with rumours galore about a factory K awasaki WSBK switch, the tenacious lad from Derby is class in every respect, and I’d bloody hate to see himhave the bad luck of a Chris Walker moment and never make the title. O n the subj ect of bad luck, after the Snetterton misfortune I’m absolutely buz z ing to see O ’Halloran back on the pipe, as now him and Linfoot hopefully have their bad luck all done and dusted for the year, the Honda racing duo will be a force to be reckoned with coming into Thrux ton, which could very much shake up the leaderboards.
Whatever happens, you’d probably have more chance of winning the lottery while being eaten by T-Rex on the planet Mars than you would predicting who’s going to finish where in this year’s championship. The fact of the matter is though, however it plays out as we get closer to the Showdown cut-off, things are only going to get better, closer and faster. Take it away lads…