Finally, I spoke to Niall MacKenzie who had yet another different opinion and that is we should be encouraging younger kids into the sport, letting them come up through the ranks and learn their race craft on smaller bikes which can then be applied to the bigger machinery. I think progression is the key, there are riders who come through 125s and then we've got fantastic riders now like Eugene Laverty in Supersport, Jonathan Rea that was in Supersport he is now in Superbike and proving he can run with some of the best riders in the world, said MacKenzie, I think it is good if the riders do learn their craft in the smaller classes for the younger riders and come up through the ranks step by step rather than just jumping on a four stroke bike right away. I think you can probably get on a Supersport bike for your first time and get stuck in a bit of a rut and you don't understand a lot of what goes on in the smaller classes which does teach you to be a good rider.
It appears that the Superstock bikes teach the rider the riding technique required for Superbike, Supersport teaches him about set up, a move to Europe will hone his skills and then he is ready for BSB easy eh? At the end of the day a lot of it boils down to sheer talent and having the right attitude as Billy Nutt went on to say, It is definitely hard as it is not only the class they are riding in it is the guy and his attitude. To be honest I'd be looking more at the rider himself than the class he came from. If he is going well in Superstock then he has experience of the big bikes and if he is going well in the 600s he will have a bit more experience with regard to the set up of the bike. I would be looking at the competitor more then class he is coming from.
A rider needs to choose his class and his path carefully as they don't all lead to BSB.
Louise Cain
