Are Brits negative?

[Mach24]

What a champ Englands James Toseland is!

JT won the Superbike World Championship in 2004 as a 24 year old. The competition at this time was not as strong as it has been but no one wins a world campionship on luck alone.

JT curently leads the 2007 championship on his Ten Kate Honda.

Now the British press are taking a swipe at the depth of the talent at home because there is no one on the world scene to take over from JT.

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/motorspo...089252,00.html

Anyone here been watching the British Superbike Championship? Camier, Rea, Sykes, Hill, Crutchlow! Not one yet in their mid 20's. I think the Brits have a huge future.

Here in OZ we support our up and coming (the underdog) where as elsewhere this is not always the case.

I know I go to the Aussie rounds and see a bunch that could go to Europe an blow em' away (look at Mark Aitchison).

(Aussie) Josh Brookes is second to none for the future but he will have a hell of a time against the aformentioned Brits when they graduate!

[ChrisS]

the last paragraph of the article I completely agree with. Brit racers must aim at more than BSB. When a young British superstock or supersport rider is asked what his goal is and he says to race in BSB then that is a problem with lack of ambition

BSB promoters and British fans often place BSB at the same level as SBK or even higher but the truth is BSB is a national series, SBK is a worldwide (mostly European) series.

As for Brits being negative, I cant answer for the British fans but the British media seem to be of the extremes, either they are extremely positive, when their supported driver, rider, athlete can do no wrong or extremely negative when when their supported athlete can do nothing right.

[Silver]

As mentioned above, much of it is down to the media. They'll build us up just to knock us down. You only have to look at the hype that surrounds the England football team before every tournament (and the reaction when we invariably get knocked out in the quarter finals) to see that.

A lot of the problem in getting a British rider onto the world scene is sponsorship. A lot of the Spanish, Italian etc riders carry personal sponsors which can help them secure a ride, whereas we don't seem to have the same level of commercial commitment over here.

[AndyRAC]

the last paragraph of the article I completely agree with. Brit racers must aim at more than BSB. When a young British superstock or supersport rider is asked what his goal is and he says to race in BSB then that is a problem with lack of ambition

BSB promoters and British fans often place BSB at the same level as SBK or even higher but the truth is BSB is a national series, SBK is a worldwide (mostly European) series.

As for Brits being negative, I cant answer for the British fans but the British media seem to be of the extremes, either they are extremely positive, when their supported driver, rider, athlete can do no wrong or extremely negative when when their supported athlete can do nothing right.

I quite agree, BSB might be good to watch but it is a national championship, the WSBK is still and always be behind MotoGP. It depresses me that more Brits aren't interested in Moto GP, especially the young riders, riding superbikes is no preparation for Moto GP, which is why I hope Bradley Smith goes nowhere near one. It is shameful that a country the size of Britain can't get sponsorship for young riders, it seems most companies are just interested in sponsoring football. Look at the British F1 GP, spomsored by a Spanish company, whats going on...???

[Mach24]

Please do excuse my sweeping generalisation in the thread title.

Having just found BSB and watched each race in awe of the depth and talent I find the comments in the news article a little out of sorts.

Camier and Rea will be in the main game soon! There can be no question of that and I get the vibe that Rea has the ability to go as far as he wants (MotoGP if he chooses).

Is it that wages are particularly good in BSB? Does this halt the desire to move on? I know I would prefer to compete in a World Championship over a National any day.

However another example of this is the AMA, Mat Mladin as the prime example, he knows he is earning shizzer loads and making the move to WSBK would pay around the same mark, why leave the comfort zone? He has acheived a lot and obviously does not want a new challenge. It will be interesting to see what Ben Spies does after all Ben Bostrom tried and failed.

In contrast the Aussie championship has (in relative terms) no money. Whilst a small number of riders are professionals I wonder how they afford to build a safe financial future. Therefore they are searching for a paid ride in Europe, England, USA, there is little to no sponsorship in Oz so they need to be talented or they fail.

All Brits are not negative and one article does not maketh a nation but it sure must play on ones mind.

[NinjaMaster]

I pretty much agree with the article from the piont-of-view that Britain has very little in the way of talent on the international arena at the moment. However, domestically there is some very nice talent coming through but they need to make good on that talent with a ruthless desire to win.
That is a good point about money and comfort Mach. I think Australians do so well because:
a. the money in Australian racing is crapola (I think 3 time champ Shawn Giles has a construction job and I know that factory Kwak rider Wayne Maxwell workds in a bike shop)
b. they have to travel so far to get there that they might as well give it everything they have to make it worth it.
c. they don't know anyone so the only there aren't really any distractions. The only thing to do is concentrate on their racing.

Also, just quickly on Mladin, I remember him saying that he wasn't interested in going to WSB a few years ago but I didn't believe him. He definately meant it the last couple of years now he has a family but I think that he was peeved he wasn't offered a ride for Zook in WSB when the Japanese factories returned and that was his explanation that even if he was offered a ride it wasn't worth it. I reckon even he would admit that the glory of World Champ beats American Champ any day of the week.

Anyway, good luck to the young Brits. There is plenty of opportunity out there for those who are willing to work hard enough for it.

[Silver]

One thing to bear in mind too is the quality of ride, of which personal sponsorship plays a part. Look at some of the recent British riders like Hodgson who went to MotoGP on a crap bike. It certainly did him no good. Leon Haslam has already raced in GPs, but on bikes that were not top draw. I guess it looks better to prove yourself in a strong national championship in order to raise the chances of getting a top ride in an international series.

[ArmchairBikeFan]

The article doesn't mention the Suzuka 8-hour, which the Japanese factories rate above WSBK and arguably above MotoGP.
Leon Camier has already made a big name for himself at Suzuka, and I believe Johnny Rea's already been over there to test for the next one.
Casey Stoner's right that the "easy" way into MotoGP is through 125 and 250, but let's not forget that the last MotoGP racewinner and pole position holder both came from WSBK and the reigning world champion came from AMA SBK.
It's a strange time for BSB, the older British riders are fading and the new stars are all in their 1st or 2nd years of the championship, and can hardly be expected to beat the likes of Kiyonari and Lavilla too often just yet.

[Silver]

Here's an interesting extract from an article on crash.net:

The only Brit in the Supersport class [at Silverstone] was Craig Jones, the 22-year-old who is backed by Gary Ekerold's Revè Ekerold Honda Racing team. Ekerold is a South African - the son of the 1980 350cc world champion Jon Ekerold - and has a pretty good fix on why Britain doesn't produce a stream of world class riders.

"BSB [the British Superbike Championship] is just too good," he said at Silverstone. "It's simply too strong. It's too easy for British riders to race in England.

"When an Australian rider comes to Europe he's travelled 10,000 miles and there's nothing for him to go back to. The same applies to a South African like me: I've come here to be world champion and I'm going to make sure that that happens."

In Ekerold's case, he means a world champion as a team owner. Last year he won the British Supersport title with Cal Crutchlow as his rider, and used that as a springboard to launch into World Supersport. But problems arose.

"It isn't just the riders, it's the corporates, too," Ekerold said. "Why would British companies get into world championship racing when they can get everything they need from the British series? I lost Nokia, Northpoint [a powder coating company] and Jewson [builders' merchants] as sponsors when I moved to World Supersport.

"We had one of the best funded teams in Britain. Now we're struggling for funding, and it's showing in our results."

[Mach24]

Interesting scenario really. BSB is so strong that it is self sufficient, yet this self sufficiency is the element that potentially holds Brit riders back from taking the step to the International stage.

Being an Aussie and witnessing the niche sport that is elite Motorcycle Roadracing at home I would take the self sufficiency any day over the current state of play in OZ.

However there is nothing like having a competitor at the elite level in any sport representing your nation.

I hope the BSB continues to boom. The crowd shots I have seen on TV have been enormous and this can only be good for the sport in general. Who knows a Brit team may head into WSBK and the momentum will swing again.

I am sure Honda have big plans for both Camier and Rea and I am sure that is not in the UK alone!