2022 British Superbike calendar

The 2022 British Superbike Championship provisional calendar has been announced.

When does British Superbikes start in 2022?

The 2022 BSB season will start on Friday the 15^th April 2022 on the Silverstone National Circuit. 

BSB Dates 2022

As at 27th September 2021

BSB Test Days 2022

2022 BSB Test Day Tickets

BikeSocial Members can buy tickets for the Official BSB Test days for just £10 per ticket. Visit www.bikesocial.co.uk/join to book yours now.

We don’t know about you, but we’re a bit ‘over’ Christmas; We’ve opened the presents, devoured the turkey and had our annual fill of wearing paper hats… now we’re just pining for Spring to begin again when the trees blossom, the temperatures rise and the start of a new MotoGP, WorldSBK and BSB season gladly consumes our weekends.

Call us impatient, we’ll take it as a compliment.

So while we’re not quite done with 2021 as a calendar year, in a motorcycle racing sense it’s already been one long month since we could get our fill of high octane action, so we’re getting itchy feet.

Once more Bennetts will be in the thick of the action for 2022 as it begins its fifth consecutive year as title sponsor for the Bennetts British Superbike Championship (in addition to its stint between 2005 and 2008) for what promises to be another thrill-a-minute 2022 BSB season.

While there are still a few high-profile seats left to fill, here is everything you need to know so far about the 2022 Bennetts BSB Championship.

The BSB Manufacturers, Teams and Riders

Yamaha

The dominant force of BSB in 2021 with 21 wins from 33 races, Yamaha pretty much commanded everything on two wheels in motorsport last year with titles in MotoGP, WorldSBK, WorldSSP and MotoAmerica.

As such, it has a mighty task in 2022 to cling onto its crowns across the board, not least in BSB where it will again have a heady mix of five factory-backed teams plus assorted well-backed privateer entrants to contend with.

Working in its favour though is continuity… and not just in terms of riders. Indeed, the Yamaha R1 is one of the older models on the grid right now but has matured like a fine wine in competitiveness, experience that allowed the McAMS (Raceways) team to strike a fine balance of speed and handling at every track.

It doesn’t hurt that it will enter the 2022 BSB season with the same rider line-up for a fourth consecutive year, including its new champion Tarran Mackenzie, who despite being tempted by the bright lights of the WorldSBK Championship has opted to remain in BSB to defend his title, dovetailing his commitments with a handful of international wildcards that he hopes will lead to a high-profile factory-endorsed deal for 2023.

On the other side of the garage will again be Jason O’Halloran, whose breakout campaign of 2021 - during which he elevated an eleven-year BSB career win total from four to 15 in one season - didn’t quite bring home the title he was on course for had it not been for the Title Showdown format. Expect him to come out punching in 2022.

Having persevered with just a single team entry in 2021, Yamaha’s ranks will swell for 2022 as RICH Energy OMG Racing embark on its third different manufacturer association in three years.

Taking on the two ex-McAMS Yamaha R1s, OMG Racing - which made its BSB debut in 2018 with Suzuki machinery before switching to BMW for 2020 - will stick with the same riders for 2022, race winning pair Bradley Ray and Kyle Ryde.

Ducati

Champions in 2019 and 2020 with Scott Redding and Josh Brookes respectively, though Paul Bird Motorsport - better known as VisionTrack Ducati - got both of its riders into the 2021 BSB Title Showdown, it was a relatively humble year for the series’ most successful set-up.

Scoring just two wins courtesy of Christian Iddon en route to fourth in the standings, though Brookes backed him up with sixth overall, it was a year that flattered to deceive for a team that has on numerous occasions otherwise been so dominant.

It has been a quiet winter for PBM Ducati as one of only two - together with Suzuki - manufacturers yet to announce its factory-backed riders for 2022.

This isn’t necessarily unusual since the team didn’t officially announce Brookes or Iddon in 2021 either, leaving us to simply assume they would turn up for pre-season testing in VisionTrack colours, which they did.

However, there are more doubts about this set-up ahead of 2022 with seemingly neither rider nailed on, while another potentially waits in the wings. The latter goes by the name of Tom Sykes, who is currently without a ride and seemingly destined to return to the BSB series he vacated at the end of 2008.

Since then Sykes has become one of the most successful riders to grace the WorldSBK stage, clinching the title in 2013 with Kawasaki - its first for 20 years - scoring 34 wins and a record-breaking 51 pole positions. However, after his rather abrupt dismissal by BMW, Sykes’ was reluctant to attach himself to a privateer project in WorldSBK, let alone in BSB.

As such, his options in BSB are limited to Ducati (and perhaps Suzuki). Should he join VisionTrack it would reunite him with Paul Bird Motorsport, with whom he raced in WorldSBK in 2010 and 2011 when it prepared Kawasaki’s factory entry.

However, part of the delay in announcing appears to stem from a secondary offer to race the factory Ducati in MotoAmerica, though this also appears to hinge on whether the manufacturer’s preferred choice of Danilo Petrucci accepts an offer once the ex-MotoGP rider has finished his Dakar Rally jaunt in January.

That said, there is talk of VisionTrack Ducati swelling to a three bike effort with Sykes joining Iddon and Brookes, but if it does come down to just two riders, perhaps surprisingly it is expected Brookes would get the nod over Iddon despite being out-performed by the younger rider in 2021.

While PBM considers how to potentially fit three into two, the sister Oxford Racing Moto Rapido team with its one and only Ducati Panigale V4 R enters into a fourth season with Tommy Bridewell, who will be looking to go one better in 2022 after winning the inter-brand Ducati fight and scoring a career-best runners-up spot in 2021.

BMW

As ever, BMW will be well represented on the 2022 BSB grid with its two Title Showdown dwelling TAS Racing Synetiq and FHO Racing teams present and correct with a pair of M 1000 RRs each.

Cushioning the blow of losing RICH Energy OMG Racing to Yamaha, BMW will continue to provide its factory support to long-time collaborators TAS Racing Synetiq in BSB, while FHO Racing gets de facto works machinery for BSB with proper ‘Motorrad’ backing for its road racing campaigns at the Isle of Man TT et al.

After delivering TAS Racing its first BSB wins since 2016, Danny Buchan stays on board for another season, where he will again be joined by four-time race winner Andrew Irwin, the younger of the Irwin brothers hoping to improve on a lean 2021 campaign that yielded just a single podium.

FHO Racing, meanwhile, will look to carry on what it started in 2021 following Faye Ho’s purchase of the erstwhile Smiths Racing set-up with fan favourite Peter Hickman back to combining BSB with the TT, North West 200, Ulster GP and Macau GP road races, while youngster Ryan Vickers comes on board looking to build on more of the promise and fewer of the errors during an otherwise eye-catching three-year stint on the RAF Kawasaki.

Honda

After its dominant debut with the new CBR1000RR-R Fireblade in 2020, it was a surprise to see Honda struggle to rediscover that momentum with the benefit of development time in 2021 with Glenn Irwin managing just a single - somewhat fortuitous - win at Silverstone.

Nevertheless, Honda UK are certainly nothing less than committed as it grows to a four-man effort in 2022, including each of its 2021 riders - Irwin, Ryo Mizuno and Takumi Takahashi - plus its Superstock 1000 title-winning protege Tom Neave.

Irwin’s place in the team is complemented by a plan to finally get his road racing programme underway, with an entry into the Isle of Man TT and North West 200 - the latter of which he has won with Ducati and Kawasaki - having originally been pencilled into his 2020 BSB contract before COVID struck.

The addition of Neave is also a no-brainer, Honda keen to develop a dedicated junior programme of which Neave is front and centre after winning a very competitive Superstock 1000 series last year.

Mizuno and Takahashi, meanwhile, are a touch more surprising, the two leading lights of the Japanese domestic superbike series finding the going very tough in BSB as they acclimatised to the less electronics-dependent Fireblade on more particular bumpy circuits against more aggressive racers. While Honda is clearly attempting to make a Ryuichi Kiyonari out of both, neither have thus far threatened to be anything like the three-time champion.

Elsewhere, Honda will also be represented by its official TAG Racing privateer effort, with long-time Honda favourite Dan Linfoot levered out in favour of Luke Mossey, who after landing a surprise pole position on his debut with the team at the rain-affected Brands Hatch finale in 2021, will get a full campaign in 2022 after a year in STK1000.

Kawasaki

Despite the introduction of a new ZX-10RR, Kawasaki failed to get a rider into the Title Showdown for the second-year in succession, piling some pressure on its nominated factory representatives FS-3 Racing.

That’s not to say there wasn’t good promise though with the consistent Lee Jackson only just missing out on the Top 8 when it mattered before going on to clinch the Riders’ Cup - ie. the best placed non Title Showdown contender.

Though he managed just a sole podium all year, Jackson remains for a third season with the team, joined once more by up-and-coming star Rory Skinner, who stole the headlines with a stunning double podium performance at his home Knockhill round to show what the teenager can do with the benefit of experience.

Though he didn’t reach those heights again for the remainder of the year, it was a sure sign that he is someone to watch for 2022 with a solid year of results behind him.

Having lost Vickers to FHO Racing, Lee Hardy Racing will be looking for a rider that it hopes can replicate its surprise success of 2018 when Jake Dixon took it to the runners-up spot. Appropriately enough, rumour has it that this rider will be the man that beat Dixon to the title in that year, Leon Haslam, the ex-WorldSBK rider having been linked with a return to the Kawasaki machinery with which he dominated in 2018.

Elsewhere, Rapid CDH Racing will look to build on a solid showing in 2021 by expanding its line-up to two Kawasaki entries, one for the retained Josh Owens and another for Liam Delves.

Suzuki

Buildbase Hawk Racing is yet to confirm its riders for the 2022 BSB season, though it is known it won’t be retaining its double race winner Gino Rea, who is heading off to compete in the Endurance World Championship with Honda.

Instead, it would do well to hold onto 2015 Moto3 World Champion Danny Kent, who was just hitting his Superbike stride when an injury sustained in a crash at Donington Park a week after his maiden podium at Thruxton ruled him out for the remainder of the year.

Iddon has been linked with a move to Suzuki should he be frozen out of the PBM line-up, which might explain why Buildbase have been holding out on making an announcement.

In the meantime, Hawk Racing will expand its efforts in BSB by providing support to the Powerslide Catfoss Racing team, which will head into a second season with Bjorn Estment and add 13-time BSB race winner James Ellison as team principal.

Provisional 2022 Bennetts British Superbike Championship Rider Line-up (As of December 2021)

2022 Bennetts BSB Support Races

QUATTRO GROUP BRITISH SUPERSPORT/GP2

HONDA BRITISH TALENT CUP

PIRELLI NATIONAL SUPERSTOCK CHAMPIONSHIP

PIRELLI NATIONAL JUNIOR SUPERSTOCK CHAMPIONSHIP

HEL PERFORMANCE BRITISH JUNIOR SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIP

DUCATI PERFORMANCE TRIOPTIONS CUP

MOLSON GROUP BRITISH SIDECAR CHAMPIONSHIP