British Superbikes Silverstone 2018

In September I paid a visit to Silverstone to catch my first live British Superbikes action for over a decade. BSB race meetings were a fairly regular occurrence for me in my early teens – my Dad would take me on the back of his bike to a couple every year. Watching legends like Steve Hislop, John Reynolds, Chris Walker and the rest do battle at Oulton, Mallory or Donington. The early-mid 2000s was a peak in Superbike racing with great bikes and strong grids. As time went on we ended up getting more into MotoGP which the BBC threw its weight behind (for a time) while BSB and WSB coverage faded from weekend television, and they were hard to keep track of.

So it was pleasing to see a healthy grid of bikes with a great range of manufacturers at Silverstone. While Haslam has had a pretty clear run at the title, the racing has still been close and exciting. It’s more than can be said for WSB. Take nothing away from Jonathan Rea, his achievements are bloody impressive, but WSB just isn’t on the same level. The crowd figures I’ve seen for the British WSB rounds in recent years say it all, particularly when a good chunk of the grid is Brits! Compare that to the size of the Spanish crowds for MotoGP races, and then consider they get four chances a year to see their heroes race. WSB needs to change something, but that’s a topic for another blog.

As if to confirm that, there seemed to be a good turnout for the British Superbikes at Silverstone. Compared to the crowd the BTCC pulled in a week later though, BSB is some way behind. Sticking the races on Eurosport and weird weekday highlights for ITV4 isn’t helping that one bit. I am impressed with how much trackside advertising BSB seems to have generated though, so clearly there’s a package there which sponsors are buying into.

The racing was fast and frenetic and plenty of action all the way through the support classes too. The BSB and BTCC formats are very similar and are good value – a full day of action for just over £30 isn’t bad these days. Good luck getting a Premier League home match ticket for that price!

I was able to get some nice photos during the day as well. That said, vantage points at Silverstone are at a premium and the distance from the track is always an issue. I would love to see some steeper banking at Luffield but the land is as flat as a pancake. Those catch fences aren’t going anywhere. Despite the fencing I was able to get some nice shots of the bikes at full chat through Copse. Here’s Josh Brookes with it lent right over!

There was a bit of a moment in Race 1 when Haslam barged his way past Bradley Ray at Luffield. Considering his dominance during the year, I’m not sure that sort of riding was really necessary, but there we go. Fortunately I was on the terracing at Luffield to catch the moment the two made contact:

I played around with panning shots and slower shutter speeds but I need to remember when to go for panning, and when not to. Generally, Luffield’s not the best place for photos with motion blur because of the change of direction and slower speeds. The approach into the corner offers some possibilities, like the photo below. However if I had been more switched on I could have avoided wasting time by instead focusing on simpler shots like the ones of Haslam and Ray above.

But all in all, a great day out, and I’m glad to have got back on the BSB wagon after so long away. I even picked up a few autographs during the pit walk, the highlight of which was Peter Hickman. Despite being surrounded by people, he was a gentleman to everyone and made time to properly greet us all. Top man.

You can view all of my photos taken during the British Superbikes Silverstone 2018 round in the dedicated Flickr album here.