Camier primed for quantum leap

Briton Leon Camier is primed to break the shackles of mediocrity at Phillip Island during the opening round of the 2013 Superbike World Championship from this Friday to Sunday (February 22-24).

The two-time British road racing champion has never really produced his best work around the 4.445km prix circuit in WSBK competition, with only one top 10 finish in six races. But now that’s set to change with his Suzuki now significantly more powerful than last year’s version, as well as adding another layer of refinement after an industrious off-season.

“The team hasn’t massive changes to the bike, but it’s been refined a lot,” said the 25-year-old from Ashford in England. “Everything is working very well, engine performance has improved, and we’ve made some big improvements in electronics.

“For sure, we still have to work a lot harder to be consistently at the front, but until the season gets underway it will be difficult to know where we are at.”

Camier, like all the WSBK top runners, has completed four days of testing on the resurfaced  Philip Island circuit over the last week, and his turn of speed was evident when he was third overall on the timesheets behind Ducati rider Carlos Checa and BMW’s Marco Melandri. However, it wasn’t all smooth running, with Camier crashing at high speed twice – but he wasn’t alone, with a number of his contemporaries also going down.

“I am a bit bashed and bruised,” said Camier. “It’s a new tarmac, but it still hurts!”

Suzuki’s had a barren run of late: its last Phillip Island WSBK win was in 2010, and its sole championship was courtesy of Australia’s Troy Corser in 2005.

The Phillip Island WSBK field will include factory teams from Kawasaki, Suzuki, BMW, Ducati, Aprilia and Honda, fielding riders who have won 65 races between them.

Other riders on the 21-bike grid will include Kawasaki’s world No. 2 Tom Sykes, Honda’s Jonathan Rea, Aprilia’s Eugene Laverty and two Australian wildcards: Glenn Allerton (BMW) and Jamie Stauffer.

Allerton was particularly impressive in testing earlier this week, and was 13th fastest on his locally prepared machine, one spot ahead of Stauffer.

As well as the two 22-lap WSBK races on Sunday, Phillip Island will also host the opening round of the Supersport World Championship, featuring a bumper crop of 35 riders. Local fans will have plenty to cheer about in WSS with four Australians competing: past Phillip Island winner Kevin Curtain (Yamaha), Mitchell Carr (Triumph), Josh Hook (Honda) and Matt Davies (Honda).