2022 British Superbikes.

[charleselan]

This last weekend saw a brilliant feast of motorcycle racing with both the first round of the British Superbikes and the 24 Hours of Endurance at Le Mans. Both events were outstanding and blessed by absolutely glorious weather and were fully covered by British Eurosport.

The first round of BSB is held on the short "National Circuit' at Silverstone and offers some unique challenges and more often than not throws up a strange result due to these unusual circumstances with mainly right hand bends and just one left hand i believe which means that the tyres operate very differently from one side to the other. Not withstanding we had the unexpected triple win by Glen Irwin on the works Honda Fireblade. In my mind Glen is an outstanding rider who has had his fair share of terrible luck over the years and also some serious health issues to contend with. He has been very open about the latter and i am certain this has helped him to overcome those problems, always strange that someone with such an ebullient personality as Glen to suffer from such conditions.

Anyhow he was truly outstanding  last weekend and won each of the races in differing ways, hopefully this will not just be down to the vagaries of the "National Circuit" and Glen Irwin will be able to win regularly this year on what is a beautiful looking Honda Fireblade in its 30th Anniversary colours. Some other excellent performances from both Bradley Ray and Kyle Ryde on their new Yamaha's, although both had one poor performance each. A very good consistent weekend from young Rory Skinner on his retro coloured Kawasaki along with his under-rated team mate Lee Jackson. However what a dismal performance from the PBM Ducati's who were never a factor, hopefully Tom and Josh will sort that out for Oulton Park. Also a big uptick for Glen's younger brother Andrew Irwin who rode brilliantly on his BMW to a superb third place in race three which came after a truly awful 2021 season for him.

The Le Mans 24 Hour race was outstanding and brought a second win on the trot for the amazing Yoshimura SERT Suzuki team, a fabulous performance by all three riders Gregg Black; Xavier Siméon and the sublime Sylvain Guintoli.

[chrisb]

I was contemplating going to Silverstone to watch the race until I realised it was on the truncated imitation of a circuit and so decided - no- Silverstone has never been a favourite place for me, although I have watched some spectacular races there over the past 45 years - ouch...is it really 45 years ago since I watched the 1977 F1 GP there and my beautiful Lotus 78's - sorry I digress, but it was a brilliant race,

Really pleased for both Irwin boys, both of whom have had more than there fair share of troubles over the past few years and quite pleasantly surprised by the pace of the Honda, thought Brad and Kyle were excellent, but as you say JC both had a bad race each, not sure what happened to Kyle in the 3rd race, what was interesting was how the solo other Yamaha went. OK a 5th in the 3rd race wasn't bad but by comparison to last year not what I expected. I also was very impressed by Rory thought he rode with his head and just accumulated points, this guy will be on the top step real soon. The PBM's were awful, Tom high-siding in one race, not what I expected, and makes you think just how well Scott had done. A quick note to say welcome back and hopefully the start of many points to Danny Kent, his first race for a very long time and we wish him well

the biggest miss was of course Jack Burnicle - whose dulcet tones and banter with the immense James Whitman was simply the best, now Jack is not there anymore and we are now with Steve Day late of MotoGP, who exceeded my expectations a bit, and never mentioned Marc Marquez once that I heard, that must have been some achievement 

Oulton Park next, on their 'international' course, a beautiful circuit but one I will not be returning to watch a BSB race there as it gets so busy you can't see anything and leaving the circuit even on a bike is a total nightmare - although am now thinking the following round at Donington is a possibility as it is a circuit with plenty of space

[charleselan]

Yes missed Jack very much and although Steve Day wasn't as bad as first thought he has a long way to go. What I find infuriating is the adolescent phraseology  and why do these guys have to insert pregnant pauses mid sentence and then accentuate a word that has little significance to the comment. Tom Gaymore who did several stints during the Le Mans 24 Hour event is similarly guilty of a similar delivery. It is like they are reading from a script and then momentarily get lost before finding their way once more.

James Whitham was his usual excellent self but there wasn't the chemistry that he had with Jack, or the humorous bouts of laughter that were so appealing previously. Early days (no pun intended) of course but better than expected.

During the Le Mans 24 Hour race Steve Parrish accompanied Tom Gaymore and was good especially when he referred back to the days of distant past. Apparently this year sees a full EWC round at Spa for a 24 hour race there, that should be pretty awesome as that track offers quite a bit more of a challenge than the short Le Mans circuit. Not new for bikes however as they have run an endurance event there for Classic Motorcycles over the past few years.

[Carl]

Not British, but definitely Superbikes!! The battles between Cameron Peterson and Danilo Petrucci this year have been intense,  earlier at Road America and last weekend's battle for 2nd over the final laps at Laguna Seca was awesome! The entire 20 lap race (the first of two) was worthwhile, but start the hightlight film at 4:40 and hold on...

[René]

Fantastic! Those guys are crazy but the way they control the bike is amazing.

[Carl]

Jul 13, 2022 14:01:33 GMT René said:

Fantastic! Those guys are crazy but the way they control the bike is amazing.

They both rode with amazing control!  On the cool down lap, Cameron Peterson and Danilo Petrucci were clasping hands to confirm how enjoyable and wonderful the fight had been, so thrilled with each other that they almost overlooked congratulating the winner!  That was wonderful to see.

[chrisb]

following a terrible accident at Donington it was announced that the really popular Chrissy Rouse tragically died yesterday following severe head injuries, similar to Marco's tragic accident, as a child of the 60's you never get over the tragic losses those era's held for you, but you just hoped that this sort of news would never be repeated, yes motor racing is dangerous but so much less so than in previous era's so the tragedy of this accident is so profound, more so as he was well known in the North-East of England and a friend of a friend of mine, a Maths teacher who life was ahead was ahead of him, rest in peace Chrissy

another sad bit of news was the passing of ex-World Champion Phil Read, forever shrouded in controversy and a no nonsense racer, person, a man of conflicting stories, almost the epitome of the marmite figure - overshadowed by the likes of Mike and Ago - he was still a World Champion many times over, rest in peace Phil