Leon Camier

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Leon Camier
Camier at Assen in 2016
Nationality	British
Born	(1986-08-04) 4 August 1986 (age 35) Ashford, Kent, England
Current team	Team HRC Superbike
hideMotorcycle racing career statistics MotoGP World Championship Active years 2014 Manufacturers Honda Championships 0 2014 championship position 27th (1 pt) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 4 0 0 0 0 1 125cc World Championship Active years 2002–2003 Manufacturers Italjet, Honda Championships 0 2003 championship position NC (0 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 12 0 0 0 0 0 Superbike World Championship Active years 2009–2019 Manufacturers Yamaha, Aprilia, Suzuki, BMW, MV Agusta, Honda Championships 0 2016 championship position 8th (168 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 172 0 9 0 1 1034.5 Supersport World Championship Active years 2006 Manufacturers Honda Championships 0 2006 championship position 32nd (6 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 1 0 0 0 0 6 British Superbike Championship Active years 2007–2009 Manufacturers Honda, Ducati, Yamaha Championships 1 2009 championship position 1st (549.5 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 70 22 33 9 20 1054.5 British Supersport Championship Active years – Manufacturers Honda Championships 1 2006 championship position 4th (112 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 37 4 13 0 0 413

Leon Stuart Camier (born 4 August 1986) is an English former solo motorcycle racer. For the 2021 season, Camier was announced as team manager for Honda World Superbike team, run under Honda Racing Corporation. After a long career in solo motorcycle racing he struggled with injuries and finally decided to end his competitive riding.^[1]

After difficult 2018 and 2019 seasons with Honda satellite team Moriwaki Althea and suffering from injuries, for 2020 he was contracted to ride for Barni Ducati in WSBK, but continued to have shoulder injury problems and was unable to start the season and parted ways with Barni Ducati.^[2]

Early life[]

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Camier was born in Ashford, Kent, England. His distant paternal ancestors were French Huguenots, although several generations of the family lived in Cork, Ireland. His appreciation of the music of Jack Johnson has been mentioned on ITV's racing coverage. He also enjoys System of a Down and Linkin Park. At 6'2", he is tall for his profession which has its disadvantages. According to ITV's coverage, he has a habit of walking around circuits the evening before races with the aim of spotting extra details about the track. This is a habit picked up from his Grasstrack days where this behaviour is usual. His nickname is Shafter. As well as racing, Camier also enjoyed playing football as a youngster for an Ashford-based club called Bliby. Camier resides in Andorra.

Career[]

Early career[]

After beginning Grasstrack racing aged 6 and winning five British championships, Camier became British Junior 80 cc Road Racing champion in 1998. He won the British 125 cc title in 2001 and the British Supersport crown in 2005.^[3] This period built a working relationship with Honda which included contesting the 2005 Suzuka 8 Hours race in 2005 at the age of 18^[4] (unusually young for a non-Japanese rider).

He was the 2005 British Supersport and 2009 British Superbike Champion. 2010 was his first full season in the World Superbike series.

British Superbike Championship (2007–2009)[]

Leon Camier races at Brands Hatch in 2008

Camier riding his Airwaves Yamaha during the 2009 BSB championship at Snetterton

2007 was his first season in the British Superbike Championship on a Bike Animal Honda. He led the first corners of his very first race and was on the podium in the first three races. A crash in race 6 at Silverstone and two eighth places at Oulton Park damaged his momentum however. At Snetterton, a bike failure in qualifying saw him start 29th but he moved up to 6th in both races amidst Honda dominance. His season ended with a huge crash at Cadwell Park causing a broken left femur and right pelvis.^[5]

For 2008 he joined the GSE Racing Airwaves Ducati team alongside former champion Shane 'Shaky' Byrne. He finished fifth overall, taking his first three wins.

For 2009 GSE switched to Yamahas and James Ellison joined as him teammate. Camier quickly dominated the series, winning even more races than Byrne had in 2008. He clinched the title with four races to go fittingly by overtaking closest rival Ellison on the penultimate lap of race 1 at Silverstone. Immediately on returning to the pits he was greeted by Niall Mackenzie (the last man to win the BSB title on a Yamaha) decked out in his original 1998 Rob Mac Cadbury's Boost leathers. Camier ultimately won a record-breaking 18 races despite only leading out of the first corner twice. His success led to the organisers of the series to adopt the "Showdown Rule" for 2010. This revised the points system to the split-season format popularly used by saloon-car series in the United States.

Superbike World Championship (2009–2020)[]

After winning the title, Camier was invited to join the Aprilia squad in the Superbike World Championship for the final two races of the season, replacing the injured Shinya Nakano.^[6] His first meeting at Magny-Cours saw him qualify 16th improving to set the fourth fastest warm-up time. Unfortunately, two technical problems meant he took no points. However, in the last meeting of the season at Portimao, Camier finished 6th and 7th.

Camier raced full-time with Aprilia in World Superbike in 2010. He finished second to teammate Max Biaggi in race two at Miller Motorsport Park, giving Aprilia their first 1–2 in the series.^[7] At his home round at Silverstone, Camier started 16th but fought back to finish sixth and third in the two races.^[8]

In late 2017, he signed to compete in the 2018 Superbike World Championship series aboard a Honda Fireblade SP2 for Ten Kate Racing as teammate to Jake Gagne.^[9] Camier continued with Honda into 2019, for the first time a full factory-backed team, with teammate Ryuichi Kiyonari.^[10]

For the 2020 season he was contracted to ride for Barni Ducati, but continuing shoulder injury problems prevented a start the season and he parted ways with Barni.^[2]

Previously he competed since 2015 for MV Agusta Reparto Corse in World Superbikes aboard an MV Agusta F4.

Career statistics[]

All-time statistics[]

British Supersport Championship[]

Races by year[]

(key)

Year	Class	Bike	SIL	BHI	SNE	OUL	MON	SNE	BHGP	KNO	MAL	CRO	CAD	OUL	DON	Pos	Pts	Ref
	BSS	Honda	5	Ret	Ret	6	8	2	Ret		3	2	Ret	4	15	7th	99	[11]

Year	Class	Bike	BHI	THR	MAL	OUL	MON	CRO	KNO	SNE	SIL	CAD	OUL	DON	BHGP	Pos	Pts	Ref
	BSS	Honda	4	1	1	Ret	Ret	2	1	1	4	3	2	7	5	1st	202	[12]

Year	Class	Bike	BHI	DON	THR	OUL	MON	MAL	SNE	KNO	OUL	CRO	CAD	SIL	BHGP	Pos	Pts	Ref
	BSS	Honda	5	Ret	4	Ret		2	6	Ret	3	3	4	Ret	4	4th	112	[13]

British Superbike Championship[]

Races by year[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Class	Bike	BHGP		THR		SIL		OUL		SNE		MOP		KNO		OUL		MAL		CRO		CAD		DON		BHI		Pos	Pts	Ref
			R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
2007	BSB	Honda	2	3	2	5	4	Ret	8	8	5	6	7	6	Ret	7	6	5	8	11	7	5	Ret	Ret					8th	199	[14]

Year	Class	Bike	THR		OUL		BHGP		DON		SNE		MAL		OUL		KNO		CAD		CRO		SIL		BHI		Pos	Pts	Ref
			R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2
2008	BSB	Ducati	5	4	3	3	5	3	5	4	1	2	Ret	8	DNS	DNS	5	8	4	4	1	5	1	4	5	3	5th	306	[15]

Year	Class	Bike	BHI		OUL		DON		THR		SNE		KNO		MAL		BHGP			CAD		CRO		SIL		OUL			Pos	Pts	Ref
			R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R3	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R1	R2	R3
2009	BSB	Yamaha	4	1	1	1	1	12	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	DSQ	6	1	1	2	2	1	1	1st	549.5	[16]

Supersport World Championship[]

Races by year[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Superbike World Championship[]

Races by year[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Grand Prix motorcycle racing[]

By season[]

Races by year[]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate fastest lap)

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leon Camier.

• Official website
• Profile on MotoGP.com
• Profile on WorldSBK.com
• Leon Camier – full profile
• British Superbike Championship