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Last weekend I attended my first race meeting since 2019, shooting photography at the final round of the 2021 British Superbike Championship, at the iconic Brands Hatch circuit.

Interestingly enough, British Superbikes at Brands Hatch in 2008 was the first event I attended with a media pass outside of the Isle of Man.

That particularly weekend didn’t go very well after heavy overnight snow on Saturday brought about the cancellation of racing. The organizers did manage to reschedule the race weekend later in the year, which I attended but I haven’t been back to Brands Hatch since.

When the Isle of Man government started to relax the islands COVID border restriction this year, I decided I was going to try and make it to a round of the British Superbike Championship.

Plans to attend a couple of early rounds didn’t come-off for various reason, so I decided to go to Brands Hatch for the culmination of the BSB Showdown.

With racing getting started around the world in the coming weeks, we see that the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP (officially the longest name in the superbike category) is ready for British Superbike duty, with Honda Racing unveiling the bike’s livery today.

With black fairings, and notably few sponsors on the machine’s fairings, this CBR1000RR-R might be a bit of a statement about the status of the world’s economy, and the role that motorcycle racing plays within it, but we appreciate the clean look nonetheless.

Peter Hickman and Josh Brookes are two riders who have proved that short circuit riders can still make the switch to the roads.

Twenty years ago the, top British short circuit riders were all racing on the roads. Whether you were an up and coming John McGuinness, or an established star like Michael Rutter, it was expected that you would join the list of short circuit racers that raced on the roads.

The practice was as old as factory contracts, and it was expected that if you wanted to have the best bikes in the British championships, you would race at the North West 200 and the Isle of Man TT.

That practice has slowly faded out, but in recent years the move has been made by some short circuit riders to return to the roads.

Josh Brookes and Peter Hickman have both shown exactly what short circuit riders can do on the roads, and with Hickman having won a series of international races, and Glenn Irwin's recent North West 200 victory, it's clear there are still some short circuit riders keen to test their nerves.

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Above: Glen Irwin is a man fast on the roads and on the short circuits. He won the feature race at last year’s North West 200 and backed that up with a win in Macau. As I write this, he’s just won a race at the North West 200 on his Ducati.

If MotoGP contracts were handed out based solely on the character of a race track, then Oulton Park in England would be at the top of the list.

The city is set in the idyllic Cheshire countryside, only 30 miles from the Beatles hometown of Liverpool, and 13 miles from the historic city of Chester. The track is fast, techinical, with natural elevation changes and spectacular scenery.

There are few finer places to watch motorcycle racing when the sun is shining than at Oulton Park. The natural banking around the track offers great unobstructed views.

If you’re a keen photographer the circuit offers fantastic opportunities with very few fences getting in the way.

With Ben Spies already retired, Colin Edwards about to retire at the end of the 2014 season, Nicky Hayden struggling with a wrist injury, and Josh Herrin having a very tough rookie year in Moto2, there is growing concern among US fans about the future of American racing.

What is to become of the nation that once dominated world championship racing, with existing stars in decline and no fresh blood ready to replace them?

Perhaps the brightest point in the firmament for American racing is PJ Jacobsen, currently racing in the World Supersport championship for the Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpress team.

The native of Montgomery, New York has been quietly building a reputation as a fast and promising young racer, stringing together a series of top ten results in the competitive WSS series in his debut year, and coming very close to scoring his first podium.

Jacobsen’s World Supersport debut comes after an impressive first year racing in the British BSB championship with Tyco Suzuki, which earned him a move to the world stage.

We caught up with Jacobsen a few weeks ago at Assen, ahead of the third round of the World Supersport championship. There, we spoke to him about the state of American racing, the difficulties faced by American riders trying to break into a world championship, and the path he took to the world stage.

Jacobsen covers BSB, living in Northern Ireland, and how his background in dirt track helped in road racing. PJ tells us about how BSB is a viable route into a world championship, and just what it takes to make the move. It was a fascinating perspective from an extremely talented young racer.

The rumors about Noriyuki Haga’s future have been swelling for the past few weeks, as the Japanese rider was tipped to land in the British Superbike Championship for the 2012 season. Officially confirmed today by Yamaha Racing, Nitro Nori will once again take to a Yamaha YZF-R1, as he competes with Swan Yamaha in BSB, and permanently replaces the injured Ian Hutchinson. While BSB fans were surely dismayed by the news that Hutchy would be out for at least part of the BSB season, the Isle of Man TT star’s absence will at least be made up for by the addition of Haga to the BSB rostrum.

A boon for the British Superbike series, Haga’s status as a former-WSBK contender should add another name to the list of riders that British fans will have to follow in 2012. Always a bridesmaid and never a bride, Haga finished runner-up in the 2000, 2007, & 2009 WSBK seasons, and finished third in the 2004, 2005, 2006, & 2008 seasons. Nitro Nori will be hoping to change that luck in the UK though, and with the support of the factory-backed Swan Yamaha squad, we expect to see the Japanese rider on the top step on more than a few occasions.

John McGuinness may be recognized as the King of the Mountain, as the Englishman has 17 Isle of Man TT victories to his name (second only in overall TT victories to the legendary Joey Dunlop). But, the young Ian Hutchinson has accomplished something neither McGuinness nor Dunlop can lay claim to: winning five solo-race victories in the TT fortnight. Hutchinson did the impossible in 2010, winning five of the solo-class races in dominate fashion (Hutchy could have swept all six solo races if he rode an electric).

Tipped as the favorite for the 2011 Isle of Man TT, Hutchy suffered a shattered leg while short-circuit racing in the British Superbike Championship. Missing last year’s TT, IOMTT fans have been waiting for Hutchinson’s return to the famous island event this year. However with only four months until the 2012 Isle of Man TT, Hutchinson has again broken his leg while rehearsing for the Carole Nash MCN Motorcycle show on an off-road bike.

With just one more round left in the 2011 British Superbike Championship, John Hopkins has undergone more surgery, again having his hand operated on for injuries he sustained after crashing at the Czech GP back in August. The surgery comes as a surprise as the BSB season is so close to completion, along with the fact that Hopkins’ dominate wins at Donington Park shoved him to the front of the points leader board in the Championship standings.

“There was a lot of pain in my fingers at Donington Park and I knew it wasn’t right and in fact I was very worried I’d aggravated the injury. So I rushed back to see my surgeon on the Monday,” explained Hopper. “The X-Rays showed that my middle finger wasn’t locating properly in the second knuckle. Fortunately the bone area that had previously been crushed was now nicely healed and so my surgeon was able to put in screws and plates so as to stabilize the finger.”