Buckmaster: ‘Our strongest line-up since 2012’
Excitement aplenty at CIA Landlord Insurance Honda.
The CIA Landlord Insurance Honda team now has its best rider combination since it ran Sam Lowes and Jules Cluzel in 2012. That is the opinion of team owner Simon Buckmaster, whose PTR operation is fielding no less than four Honda CBR600RR bikes in the FIM Supersport World Championship.
For next year, Buckmaster’s rider line-up consists Qatar 2015 race winner Kyle Smith and British Supersport Champion Luke Stapleford alongside fellow Briton Stefan Hill and Japanese newcomer Hikari Okubo.
“With Luke and Kyle together, I truly feel we have the best line-up since 2012 when Sam Lowes and Jules Cluzel both challenged for the title, eventually finishing second and third,” Buckmaster writes in his latest blog. “We will be giving our all to go one better in 2016 and Luke and Kyle will lift each other, I am sure.”
Buckmaster went on to add that the full-time stepping up to the WorldSBK paddock of Josh Brookes and Luke Stapleford – the respective reigning British Superbike and Supersport Champions – is nothing but positive for both championships:
“I think it is a fantastic tribute to the British Superbike Championship that the winner of British Supersport has a ride with us. I know second-placed Kyle Ride is also hoping to secure a World Supersport ride. Then we have the BSB Champion Josh Brookes and his team, also making a step into World Superbike. This gives inspiration to all young riders in BSB that they can also make the step up into the World Championship, using BSB as a stepping stone.”
The 2016 FIM Supersport World Championship will kick off alongside the WorldSBK premier class, at Phillip Island in Australia next February.
