BSB 2024: It’s Anyone’s Game in First International Season in Five Years

The 2024 British Superbike Championship comes in the wake of one of the most dramatic seasons in the series’ history in 2023, which saw the title decided in a final race, with a final lap duel between the two primary title contenders. BSB 2024 adds a new circuit into the mix, as well as several rider moves and a slight change to the tyre rules.

Overview - Hit the links below to be taken to the relevant section

• BSB 2024 Championship Standings - Championship points after round one in Navarra

• BSB 2024 teams & riders - All the names to look out for this year after a winter full of transfers

• BSB 2024 calendar - All the races and dates for the 11-round 2024 season

• BSB 2024 points system - Second year of new-look points and Showdown format

• BSB 2024 tyres - New allocation brought to try to control speeds

BSB 2024 Championship Standings

The opening round of the 2024 British Superbike Championship saw an exceptional weekend for Yamaha, who took all six podium placs/ For Ryan Vickers, a double win means he leads the standings by 14 ahead of the first British round at Oulton Park next month.

2024 British Superbike Championship Standings

BSB 2024 teams & riders

The 2024 BSB season is set to look a fair bit different to 2023, with new official teams, top teams scaling back, and riders moving teams and manufacturers.

One of the headline changes for this year is that the Raceways Yamaha team, that ran under the McAMS Yamaha banner, has left the championship, and so its official Yamaha support has gone to OMG Racing, which also has a new title sponsor in the drinks company Grilla. Their rider line-up stays the same, though, with Kyle Ryde and Ryan Vickers remaining aboard the R1s.

After Raceways left, McAMS found a new home in the Mar-Train Racing team, thus sticking with Yamaha machinery. The team has parted with Jack Kennedy, though, who has moved back to Supersport with Honda, and in his place at Mar-Train has arrived 2015 Moto3 World Champion Danny Kent.

Kennedy’s move to Supersport with Honda comes with the chance to move back to Superbike with the same brand in the future, but for now Honda’s expanded three-rider effort sees Andrew Irwin return on the #18, and joined now by 2019 Senior TT Winner Dean Harrison and reigning BSB Champion Tommy Bridewell.

Bridewell left behind the PBM Ducati squad to head to Honda, but Glenn Irwin remains in the now-Hager-backed PBM team, which sticks with Ducati in 2024 but down-sizes to one bike.

BMW’s effort is spread across three teams this year. FHO Racing has brought the Monster Energy backing it ran at the Isle of Man TT last year to BSB in 2024, and remains with Peter Hickman and Josh Brookes aboard its pair of M 1000 RRs.

Elsewhere, Leon Haslam’s team retains its ROKiT sponsorship but upgrades to the latest-spec M 1000 RR after spending last year on the 2022 bike.

Finally for BMW, Rory Skinner is back in BSB this year after being dropped by the American Racing Moto2 team at the end of last year. Skinner was last in BSB in 2022 with the FS-3 Kawasaki team, but returns this year with the new-look, one-rider Cheshire Mouldings BMW Motorrad team run by the well-known TAS Racing setup.

Skinner’s old team, FS-3, has Completely Motorbikes backing this year, and is still the official Kawasaki BSB team. Jason O’Halloran has arrived to replace Lee Jackson, while Max Cook remains on the #30 ZX-10RR.

The full 2024 BSB rider roster is below.

2024 British Superbike Championship Rider List

BSB 2024 races

The 2024 BSB calendar is most notable for its inclusion of the Circuito de Navarra as the season opener on 20-21 April. The Spanish circuit was bought by MSVR, which promotes BSB and owns tracks like Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Cadwell Park among others. The teams and riders tested at Navarra at the end of last year, and have just been back for another pre-season test. The Navarra round will mark the first international race for BSB since it last went to Assen in 2019.

Navarra’s inclusion comes at the cost of Silverstone, but aside from that the calendar features all the circuits we’ve come to expect, with the likes of Cadwell Park, Oulton Park, Donington Park, Thruxton, Snetterton, Brands Hatch, and Knockhill all included.

The full 2024 BSB calendar is below.

2024 British Superbike Calendar

BSB 2024 points system

BSB overhauled its points and Showdown model in 2023, getting rid of the eight-rider cut-off and ‘podium credits’ system that had been more or less unchanged since 2010, and bringing in a new system of levelled points scoring. This new system remains in place for 2024.

The first eight rounds of the championship make up the Main Season, and score the top 15 riders of each race on the following scale: 18-16-14-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Then, rounds nine and 10 make up the Showdown portion of the championship and score the top 15 of each race on the following scale: 25-22-20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1.

Finally, round 11 is marked as the Season Finale, and scores the top 15 of each race on the following scale: 35-30-27-24-22-20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2.

BSB 2024 tyres

Pirelli has developed its Diablo Superbike tyre offering over the last 20 years. One of the most significant developments for the World Superbike Championship has been the SCX compound, which was originally designed to be used in WorldSBK’s 10-lap Superpole Races, but has also become an option in the full-distance races in the World Championship.

The SCX was introduced to BSB for the first time last year, but has now been removed from the BSB allocation on safety grounds. Not for an issue with the tyre itself, but with the corner speeds it allows. Effectively, BSB has banned the SCX tyre to control the amount of grip available to BSB riders and therefore the speed they can carry around a circuit.

The tracks BSB visits are often quite limited in terms of run-off area, and so controlling speeds is an important safety measure.

Find all the latest BSB news throughout the 2024 season on Visordown.