Featured rider - Chris Bishop - the
unluckiest rider in British Supersport
Chris Bishop was leading the MRO Supersport championship
in 2003 when he had a horrendous crash at Silverstone.
As he told me when answering the 2onT '20 questions'
(see below) he was flat out in sixth gear when he
lost the front end. The injuries he sustained put
him out for the rest of the season, and to this
day, he is still recovering. He spent his winter
profitably and has set up a new team with some ex-students
of Kingston University's engineering department.
Chris has teamed up with Paul Adams, his chief mechanic,
to form a new team called RaceLab. Using all their
own money they bought a new CBR600RR to contest
the British Supersport championship this year. The
bike is developing over a 120 BHP on the dyno, and
Chris hopes this will increase further when they
get the fuelling spot on. The bike has a Tony Scott-tuned
engine, Akropovitch full race exhaust system, close-ratio
gear box from Honda racing and HRC ignition, and
Bridgestone is supplying the tyres.
The season didn't get off to a good start at Silverstone.
Chris had obvious misgivings about returning to
the high speed circuit, and he suffered when the
rain came down, missing out on the points. He was
hoping for much better at his local, and favourite
circuit, Brands. But he had a massive crash at Paddock
Hill Bend in practice, which left him badly knocked
about and banned from racing for seven days due
to being concussed. Chris was hoping for a change
in his fortunes at the next round at Snetterton,
after all, things couldn't possibly go any worse.
Wrong - the engine went sick in the first lap of
qualifying and without a back-up bike or second
motor, the team were forced to pack up and go home.
It turns out they have a major problem on their
hands and RaceLab are not expecting to make a return
to BSS action until Brands in late June. Its safe
to say things have not gone to plan for the unluckiest
rider in Britain.
20 Questions;
- 1 - Where do you live? -
Sittingbourne, Kent
- 2 - Where did you grow up? - Sittingbourne
- 3 - What school did you go to & how many GCSEs
did you get? - Westlands.
Eight
- 4 - How old are you ? - 30
- 5 - How long have you been racing? - Ten
years
- 6 - Whats the worst job you've ever done? -
McDonalds
- 7 - Whats the best bike you've ever ridden?
- TZ250
- 8 - Whats the worst bike you've ever ridden?
- MZ
- 9 - Whats your favourite track? - Brands
Hatch
- 10 - Whats your favourite pastime? - Riding
my dirt bike
- 11 - Whats your favourite website? - None
- computers do my head in
- 12 - Whats your favourite book? - TZ250
manual!
- 13 - Who's the best rider you've ever raced
against? - Gary Haslam, nephew
of Ron, but didn't get the backing he deserved
- 14 - What was the best race you've been in?
- 250 race at Brands in 2000.
Three or four of us were alongside each other,
busting fairings all race long
- 15 - How many crashes have you had? - 50,
four or five per season
- 16 - What was the most painful crash? - Last
year at Silverstone MRO Supersport race. I was
flat out in sixth gear, with full throttle, when
I lost the front end, and the bike and I slid
a thousand yards. I had no skin on my arms, my
fingers were smashed up, I had a smashed elbow
and lost one and a half inches off the end of
my ring finger as well as three fingernails. I'm
still recovering, and my arm won't straighten
to this day
- 17 - What do you drive on the road? - Van
- 18 - Fogarty or Doohan? - Doohan,
definitely
- 19 - Favourite TV programme? - MotoGP
- 20 - If we gave you a cruise missile, what would
you fire it at? - Footballers
- they earn too much money
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