Round eight 8/9 August Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli Leon Camier is on course to better the long standing record of race victories in a season held by former triple champion Niall Mackenzie after winning the opener to the eighth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli at Brands Hatch. This latest success by Camier completed a winning dozen and leaves him one short of matching Mackenzie’s record, set back in 1997, and while that is a key milestone for the 22 year old Ashford rider, more importantly this latest success has put him 90.5 points clear of his nearest rival, team-mate James Ellison who ran sixth. “This is a dream year, everything is going to plan I’m over the moon with this win on my home circuit. It is perfect, though it was hard and hot out there. I was sliding around and it was hard to be consistent,” explained Camier, who having beaten off the challenge of Kawasaki World Superbike rider Broc Parkes by a couple of seconds is raring to go in Sunday’s two races at the Kent Grand Prix circuit. Camier had earlier claimed his sixth pole start, running fastest in each of the three elements of the Swan Combi 50 Roll for Poll and this after a problematic time in free practice. “We had some issues on Friday but it shows the strength of the team that they sorted them but we have pulled it out of the bag when it matters most.” Parkes, twice a winner at the circuit in his World Supersport days, had made the early running in the 18 lap races, with fellow Aussie Karl Muggeridge on the HM Plant Honda second and Camier third on the opening lap. Next time round, Camier was second, and beginning to make inroads on Parkes. On the tenth lap, Camier nosed through on the inside at Druids to grab the lead, and once clear was able to dictate terms from the front, pulling away from Parkes, while Hydrex Honda rider Stuart Easton was taking a distant third place. Karl Muggeridge ran fourth for the HM Plant Honda team while Tommy Hill, another local favourite, won a titanic battle for fifth, easing his Worx Crescent Suzuki home ahead of Ellison. John Laverty was seventh for Buildbase Kawasaki ahead of Karl Harris, Chris Walker and Julien da Costa. Gary Mason, thirteenth overall, was the winner of the Mirror.co.uk Cup category aboard the Quay Garage Honda and he reflected: “We made a good start, but then had an issue with the front tyre and opted it to bring it home safely although at times it was a bit scary though being here and winning is a bonus.” Martin Jessopp was second in class, from Tom Tunstall. Results MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli Round eight race one, 18 laps Leon Camier (Airwaves Yamaha) 26m 15.747secs Broc Parkes (Kawasaki World Superbike) 1.901s Stuart Easton (Hydrex Honda) +11.495s Karl Muggeridge (HM Plant Honda) +15.461s Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +15.840s James Ellison (Airwaves Yamaha) +17.959s John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +19.646s Karl Harris (Hydrex Honda) +21.033s Chris Walker (Motorpoint/Henderson Yamaha) +23.195s Julien Da Costa (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +23.236s Championship standings Leon Camier 324.5 James Ellison 234 Stuart Easton 189 Glen Richards 103 Karl Harris 99.5 Josh Brookes 99 More, from a press release issued by Airwaves Yamaha: HOME WIN FOR AIRWAVES YAMAHA Leon Camier today increased his lead in the British Superbike Championship to 90.5 points, winning the opening race of Round 8. Finishing 6th, James Ellison increased his points total to 234. Earlier in the day Leon secured his 6th pole position of the season with a time of 1:26.860. From the number one spot, Leon produced one of his best starts of the year to slot into 3rd. James initially got away well to fight alongside his teammate into the first corner. However, by the end of lap 1, James found himself back in 6th. After making up a place, Leon quickly chased down Broc Parkes, the Kawasaki World Superbike Wild Card rider. James meanwhile became involved in a 6-way battle. On lap 10 Leon took the lead going through on the inside of Druids, eventually taking the chequered flag by nearly two seconds. James successfully managed to withhold a number of challenges to maintain his 6th place. After race one James commented, “My start was pretty good but from the first lap I had a problem with the front end of the Airwaves Yamaha and lost some places. The problem seemed to get worse as the race went on but I kept pushing. I managed to start closing the gap to the rider in front, but I ran out of laps to do anything more. We’ve struggled after not doing any laps yesterday, but now we have a good amount of data to work with ahead of the two races tomorrow. I’m confident we’ll see some big improvements and be back on form.” Firmly securing his place as GSE Racing’s most successful rider, Leon was delighted to take his 12th victory of the season in front of his home crowd saying, “It’s been a perfect day. The race was pretty hard. Broc Parkes managed to build a gap at the start and I had to push to catch him. It was really hot out there and pretty greasy so I had to focus on being smooth and not doing anything too aggressive. I didn’t actually mean to pass him where I did, but I pulled it off. I then got my head down. I made a few small mistakes but luckily by that point I had a bit of a gap. It’s feels fantastic to win at Brands Hatch today. We’ve got a lot of people here from GSE Group as it’s their home track as well as mine. More of the same tomorrow would be great!” Race Two is scheduled to commence tomorrow at 1300 and Race Three at 1630.