In the second race of the sixth round, the first three places were taken by Hopkins, Hill, and Byrne. The same racers in a slightly different order occupy the top three positions in the overall standings. All three use Akrapovič exhaust systems!

At the Snetterton 300 track northeast of London, the British Superbike Championship racers participated in the sixth of twelve rounds this season. The most successful racer was John Hopkins on his Suzuki: he finished the first race in third place and, following an epic battle with Tommy Hill (Yamaha) in the second race, he won in the final lap with a lead of less than three-tenths of a second.

The American thus took away his first win on the completely remodeled track: “I’m happy; my Samsung Crescent Suzuki was brilliant today and I can’t thank my crew enough for creating a bike that I feel so confident with. We got the biggest points haul today and that’s really helped my Championship position; to be just one point behind Byrne on podium credits will do fine at this stage of the Championship. I must also say, again, that I really enjoyed this circuit. It’s been so much fun. All of us riders said before today that it would create close and exciting racing—and it did. It also led to some bar-banging, quite literally, and ultimately that cost both Byrne and myself the chance to win the second race. I’m sorry for the both of us on that; we both probably wanted that win maybe too much and in the heat of the moment you want to do everything you can to make that win happen.”

Akrapovič fans could hardly imagine a better showing in the championship’s points table, considering that all of the top three on bikes with one-liter, four-cylinder engines use exhaust systems with the red scorpion. The current leader with 201 points is Shane Byrne (HM Plant Honda), second place with 182 points is John Hopkins (Samsung Crescent Racing Suzuki), and third position is held by Tommy Hill (140 points; Swan Yamaha).

One of the most attractive championships in the world (many people think MotoGP is downright boring compared to the British Superbike Championship) will continue from 15 to 17 July at the Oulton Park track.

Photo: Suzuki Racing, Yamaha