April first bank holiday weekend saw the start of the new British Superbike season and with a new title sponsor (Visk) onboard crowds descended on the Kent circuit of Brands Hatch. (see more)
A new sponsor wasn't the only change from last year, many of the top riders from all series had moved on which meant a huge change in riders and teams on the grid. Ducati left the main Superbike championship, and with only a handful of Italian bikes now competing at Superstock level, it was the new Yamaha R1 which stepped up to fill that gap. This machine had impressed at WSB level so far this year and now it was our turn to hear the distinctive Ducati-like drone of it's unique 4 cylinder engine.
We also saw the replacement of the KTM SuperDuke support class which was replaced with the Focused Events KTM RC8 Super Cup with some old and new faces taking part, along with the debut of the Harley Davidson XR1200 bike which will be taking part in the series during the year in a one make championship.
One of the few things unchanged for 2009 was the unpredictability of the weather, and this weekend saw heavy blankets of fog cover the circuits each morning, a couple of showers but towards the end of race day the sun finally broke through to end the weekend on a high.
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