From former champions switching groups and types to others rejoining the championship after a time away, there’s a lot change coming in BSB this yr, and listed below are our three picks for essentially the most consequential.
TAS swaps BMW for Ducati
Rory Skinner’s return to BSB in 2024 didn’t go in addition to, say, Scott Redding’s, when he left the Grand Prix paddock for the 2019 season.
Whereas Redding received the title at what was his first try in BSB, Skinner’s third full season within the premier class of the British Championship was marred by harm.
Though he did choose up the one victory for a BMW rider in 2024 (at his residence race in Knockhill), the Scottish rider missed half the season by way of harm and completed solely seventeenth within the remaining standings.
Except for age (Skinner was 22 when he made his return to BSB final yr, whereas Redding was 26 in 2019), maybe the important thing distinction between Skinner’s 2024 season and Redding’s 2019 season was equipment.
Though the Ducati Panigale V4 R was in solely its first season of racing in 2019, it was instantly one of the vital aggressive packages obtainable in manufacturing racing. Alvaro Bautista dominated the primary half of that yr’s World Superbike Championship, and BSB 2019 was a straight struggle between Redding and his PBM Ducati teammate, Josh Brookes.
Then again, the BMW M1000 RR has confirmed to be a harder bike to convey to competitiveness. Solely in 2024 was it capable of win a dry WorldSBK race, having been launched in its preliminary type in the identical yr because the V4 Ducati, and, though the BMW has been successful on the roads and within the Nationwide Superstock class, it hasn’t discovered the identical success within the premier BSB class, with the Skinner being the one BMW-mounted rider to say a race win final yr.
Skinner’s potential is evident, and was made so in 2020 when he cruised to the British Supersport Championship crown, successful all however two of the 12 races that yr, and taking 11 podium finishes.
Switching to Ducati — which by now has received three of the previous six BSB titles — whereas remaining in a group he now is aware of nicely and which clearly has religion in him may very well be the factor that permits Skinner to unlock that potential on a Superbike.
Josh Brookes to Honda
Josh Brookes’ transfer to DAO Racing comes at an intriguing second. A Senior TT podium finisher in 2024 with FHO BMW, Brookes’ second season on the M1000 RR in BSB didn’t go to script.
The Australian was a winner at Silverstone and Oulton Park when he first moved to FHO in 2023, however solely managed two fourth locations as his greatest end in 2024.
The BMW’s BSB points talked about above after all apply to Brookes as they do to Skinner, whereas the Honda CBR1000RR-R the Australian is about to hop on for the primary time in BSB was confirmed to have potential in 2024 by Tommy Bridewell, who got here up one level wanting the title in his first yr on the Fireblade.
An expanded presence for Honda on the 2025 grid is a reward for its show of potential, and two-time BSB Champion Brookes is unquestionably the premier Honda rider of these exterior the official group.
The return of Ray
The capability for Ray’s return to go badly is clear. He’s spent two years in WorldSBK with each outcomes sheet going (aside from Imola 2023) saying he’s really not that good, and so the potential for his confidence to take some time to rebuild from that have is clearly there.
Not solely that, he has to regulate again to British tracks and BSB guidelines; most notably no electronics, though that’s most likely not going to be such a problem for a rider with the pure seemingly possessed by the 2022 BSB Champion.
He additionally has to turn out to be snug with operating on the entrance once more and the strain it carries, plus that introduced by strolling into the group of the reigning champion, Kyle Ryde.
Then again, Ray has overwhelmed Ryde earlier than, when he received the title in 2022 they usually had been teammates, as they’re in 2025, on the OMG Yamaha group. Certainly, there’s consolation to be taken from the outcomes of three years in the past.
Positive, Ryde has taken steps since then and turn out to be a deserving champion in his personal proper, however placing two champions collectively in the identical group is all the time going to create pleasure.
