MotorSport Vision Racing PR:

Leon Camier heads the chase for the ViSK British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli going into the fifth round at Snetterton with his Airwaves Yamaha team-mate James Ellison his nearest rival, but Josh Brookes is threatening to spoil their duel for supremacy.

Riding the HM Plant Honda, Brookes showed his real potential last time out at Thruxton with a determined ride through the pack in the second race at the Hampshire circuit to take third, running barely a tenth of a second adrift of Ellison who was feeling the pressure from the Australian.

“This is the old me back again – I am working in a good team environment and this is paying back their efforts,” explained Brookes who is aiming to put together a run of form to put behind him a difficult early season. He is playing catch-up on the leaders in the title chase but is determined to take the fight to them.

His team-mate Glen Richards is also looking to the fast Norfolk circuit to provide a booster to his efforts – the winner of the Supersport and Superstock title in the past two years is currently running fourth in the rankings and he knows that nothing short of victories will suffice if he is to complete a hat-trick of crowns.

That will not come easily with Camier returning to a circuit where last year he took a win and a second place, and, the 22 year old is expecting more of the same as he bids to increase his 38 points lead in the title stakes. He has won six of the eight races so far and is brimming with confidence while his team work around him on the continuing development of his Yamaha.

Ellison should again be on the pace, bidding for a second win of the season, to boost his chances of taking the country’s premier crown, but apart from Brookes the Airwaves duo need to check the form of another former Supersport champion, Stuart Easton who has been racking up the points consistently, with four podium finishes aboard the Hydrex Honda.

However Flying Scot Easton has to overcome something of a circuit jinx that has seen him finish only two of the races that he has started there, though the first of them back in 2004 was a winning ride.

More immediately, he has to dismiss the painful memories of last year: “I had the biggest and fastest crash of my career; it is one of the scariest moments when you discover your brakes aren’t working! I broke my wrist and was out for four rounds, but I should have expected it really as things have never gone well for me there.”

Easton will be riding hard, as will his team-mate Karl Harris, while Michael Rutter continues to deputise for Sylvain Guintoli aboard the Worx Crescent Suzuki, keen to build on his pair of fifths from the previous round.

Simon Andrews is another rider to keep an eye on with determined performances aboard the MSS Colchester Kawasaki while John Laverty rides a similar machine in Buildbase colours.

Gary Mason, meanwhile, expects to continue his eight race winning spree aboard the Quay Garage Honda, to tighten his grip on the Mirror.co.uk Cup.