o/t bsb

[jimmylad]

Has or will the british superbike championship come to rockingham, because i think i know of some people who would be interested.

[timtime]

Yes it ran twice from memory and the rights were then sold to Croft in 2004 if I recall correctly. It was supposed to return in 2005 with a Days of Thunder type format but it never came back.

It was a love hate relationship anyway and Rockingham cocked it up in 2003 when they repainted some white lines just a few days before the races that were too slippery for two wheels. I didnt go but I think only Superbikes and Supersports ran and only then due to contractual obligations.

I would love to see the championship back there but I dont know if it will ever happen. For me BSB will be interesting in 2008, with so many top riders moving on to better things after a superb 2007. I hope that it going to be as good but I have some apprehensions.

Tim

[Jeff Carter]

Yes it ran twice from memory and the rights were then sold to Croft in 2004 if I recall correctly. It was supposed to return in 2005 with a Days of Thunder type format but it never came back.

It was a love hate relationship anyway and Rockingham cocked it up in 2003 when they repainted some white lines just a few days before the races that were too slippery for two wheels. I didnt go but I think only Superbikes and Supersports ran and only then due to contractual obligations.

I would love to see the championship back there but I dont know if it will ever happen. For me BSB will be interesting in 2008, with so many top riders moving on to better things after a superb 2007. I hope that it going to be as good but I have some apprehensions.

Tim


BSB visited Rockingham three times between 2001 and 2003.

However Tim you also have got something else very wrong, Rockingham DIDN'T 'cock it up' in 2003! A new type of paint was used so it could be easily removed after the BSB meeting because the painted line was on the racing line for the ASCAR's. The paint was tested and approved well ahead of the BSB meeting. However there was torrential rain leading up to the weekend and the BSB officials were warned by the circuit staff that the paint wouldn't dry if it was put down, however they insisted and it was put down. On Friday morning the officials inspected the track and the first practice session got underway and within 5 minutes two riders had touched the white lines and had gone down. BSB officials then declared the track unsafe and asked for the lines to be removed. Because of the compund used it had to be sandblasted off the track which inevitably took time.

The reason the BSB meeting was sold to Croft was completely commercial. It took two days to set up the BSB circuit for a three day meeting and then a further two days to take down, that's seven full days. This was due to all of the safety equipment necessary. With the fee paid to BSB to host the event and all the other associated costs, Rockingham was lucky if the BSB weekend broke even, despite attracting an 18,000 strong crowd. Once Croft had bought the rights to hold the BSB event, the five week days that would've been allocated to the build of the circuits were sold for track and corporate days and the weekend became a CSCC meeting, who paid Rockingham for the circuit hire. As you can see this was a bit of a no brainer commercially - Croft paid Rockingham; there was no fee paid to BSB; five days of track/corporate use; race meeting that paid Rockingham a circuit hire fee.

Will BSB return to Rockingham? I doubt it but you can never say never.

Jeff