Leon Camier

Leon Stuart Camier (born 4 August 1986) is an English former solo motorcycle racer.

Leon Camier
Camier at Assen in 2016
Nationality	British
Born	(1986-08-04) 4 August 1986 (age 37) Ashford, Kent, England
Current team	Team HRC Superbike
Motorcycle 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 2009–2020 Manufacturers Yamaha, Aprilia, Suzuki, BMW, MV Agusta, Honda Championships 0 2020 championship position NC (0 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 223 0 9 0 1 1272.5 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 2004–2006 Manufacturers Honda Championships 1 2006 championship position 4th (112 pts) Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points 37 4 13 0 0 413

After working as a race team manager, from 2024 he is a rider-coach for Sam Lowes and Elf Marc VDS Racing, a long-established team in Moto2, having a new entry to the Superbike World Championship using a Ducati Panigale 955.^[1]

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.^[2]

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.^[3]

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.^[4] This period built a working relationship with Honda which included contesting the 2005 Suzuka 8 Hours race in 2005 at the age of 18^[5] (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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8] At his home round at Silverstone, Camier started 16th but fought back to finish sixth and third in the two races.^[9]

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.^[10] Camier continued with Honda into 2019, for the first time a full factory-backed team, with teammate Ryuichi Kiyonari.^[11]

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.^[3]

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

Career statistics

All-time statistics

Series		Years Active	Races	Poles	Podiums	Wins	2nd place	3rd place	Fastest Laps	Titles
British Supersport Championship		^2004–2006	37	0	13	4	5	4	0	1
Supersport World Championship		^2006	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
British Superbike Championship		^2007–2009	70	9	33	22	6	5	20	1
Superbike World Championship		^2009−	162	0	9	0	2	7	1	0
Total			270	9	55	26	13	16	21	2

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
2004	BSS	Honda	5	Ret	Ret	6	8	2	Ret		3	2	Ret	4	15	7th	99	^[12]

Year	Class	Bike	BHI	THR	MAL	OUL	MON	CRO	KNO	SNE	SIL	CAD	OUL	DON	BHGP	Pos	Pts	Ref
2005	BSS	Honda	4	1	1	Ret	Ret	2	1	1	4	3	2	7	5	1st	202	^[13]

Year	Class	Bike	BHI	DON	THR	OUL	MON	MAL	SNE	KNO	OUL	CRO	CAD	SIL	BHGP	Pos	Pts	Ref
2006	BSS	Honda	5	Ret	4	Ret		2	6	Ret	3	3	4	Ret	4	4th	112	^[14]

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	^[15]

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	^[16]

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	^[17]

Supersport World Championship

Races by year

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

Year	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pos	Pts
2006	Honda	QAT	AUS	SPA	ITA	EUR	SMR	CZE	GBR 10	NED	GER	ITA	FRA	32nd	6

Superbike World Championship

Races by year

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

Year	Bike	1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8		9		10		11		12		13		14		Pos	Pts
		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	R1	R2
2009	Yamaha	AUS	AUS	QAT	QAT	SPA	SPA	NED	NED	ITA	ITA	RSA	RSA	USA	USA	SMR	SMR	GBR 13	GBR 6											20th	32
	Aprilia																			CZE	CZE	GER	GER	ITA	ITA	FRA Ret	FRA Ret	POR 6	POR 7
2010	Aprilia	AUS 11	AUS 11	POR 5	POR 5	SPA Ret	SPA Ret	NED 3	NED Ret	ITA 5	ITA 4	RSA 6	RSA Ret	USA 4	USA 2	SMR 6	SMR 11	CZE Ret	CZE 8	GBR 6	GBR 3	GER DNS	GER DNS	ITA	ITA	FRA	FRA			12th	164
2011	Aprilia	AUS 13	AUS 6	EUR 8	EUR 3	NED Ret	NED 4	ITA 8	ITA Ret	USA 4	USA 2	SMR 6	SMR Ret	SPA 3	SPA 8	CZE 7	CZE Ret	GBR 15	GBR 5	GER 8	GER Ret	ITA 15	ITA 3	FRA 4	FRA 6	POR 12	POR 6			7th	208
2012	Suzuki	AUS 17	AUS 12	ITA Ret	ITA 8	NED Ret	NED 14	ITA C	ITA 15	EUR 9	EUR 4	USA 13	USA 11	SMR 10	SMR 15	SPA 9	SPA Ret	CZE 14	CZE 9	GBR Ret	GBR Ret	RUS 15	RUS 5	GER 5	GER 3	POR 11	POR Ret	FRA Ret	FRA 10	14th	115.5
2013	Suzuki	AUS 9	AUS 9	SPA DNS	SPA DNS	NED 9	NED 7	ITA 9	ITA 7	GBR Ret	GBR 13	POR 4	POR Ret	ITA 7	ITA 7	RUS 9	RUS C	GBR 3	GBR 5	GER Ret	GER DNS	TUR DNS	TUR DNS	USA	USA	FRA	FRA	SPA 8	SPA 6	11th	132
2014	BMW	AUS	AUS	SPA 12	SPA 12	NED 13	NED Ret	ITA 11	ITA 12	GBR DNS	GBR DNS	MAL 10	MAL 12	ITA	ITA	POR	POR													16th	37
	MV Agusta																	USA 15	USA 10	SPA	SPA	FRA	FRA	QAT	QAT
2015	MV Agusta	AUS 10	AUS 8	THA Ret	THA Ret	SPA 10	SPA 15	NED 10	NED 10	ITA Ret	ITA Ret	GBR 9	GBR Ret	POR Ret	POR Ret	ITA 13	ITA 16	USA 10	USA 10	MAL 13	MAL 12	SPA 9	SPA 8	FRA 5	FRA 15	QAT Ret	QAT Ret			13th	89
2016	MV Agusta	AUS 7	AUS Ret	THA 11	THA 11	SPA Ret	SPA 16	NED 4	NED 9	ITA 6	ITA 5	MAL 10	MAL 9	GBR 4	GBR 5	ITA 8	ITA Ret	USA 11	USA DNS	GER 5	GER 4	FRA 7	FRA 4	SPA 7	SPA Ret	QAT 18	QAT 13			8th	168
2017	MV Agusta	AUS 5	AUS 8	THA 8	THA Ret	SPA 11	SPA 10	NED 10	NED 6	ITA 6	ITA Ret	GBR 6	GBR 6	ITA 11	ITA Ret	USA 6	USA Ret	GER 5	GER 6	POR 4	POR Ret	FRA 4	FRA Ret	SPA 12	SPA 12	QAT 9	QAT 9			8th	168
2018	Honda	AUS 7	AUS 6	THA 4	THA 6	SPA Ret	SPA DNS	NED	NED	ITA WD	ITA WD	GBR 10	GBR 8	CZE 9	CZE 7	USA Ret	USA 13	ITA 9	ITA 10	POR Ret	POR 14	FRA 11	FRA 9	ARG 10	ARG Ret	QAT Ret	QAT C			12th	108

Year	Bike	1			2			3			4			5			6			7			8			9			10			11			12			13			Pos	Pts
		R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2	R1	SR	R2
2019	Kawasaki	AUS Ret	AUS 13	AUS 10	THA 13	THA NC	THA DNS	SPA 11	SPA 12	SPA 13	NED 11	NED C	NED 12	ITA DNS	ITA DNS	ITA C	SPA	SPA	SPA	ITA	ITA	ITA	GBR	GBR	GBR	USA	USA	USA	POR	POR	POR	FRA 7	FRA 16	FRA 9	ARG DNS	ARG 12	ARG 13	QAT 10	QAT 13	QAT 16	17th	51
2020	Ducati	AUS DNS	AUS DNS	AUS DNS	SPA	SPA	SPA	POR	POR	POR	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	SPA	FRA	FRA	FRA	POR	POR	POR																NC	0

Grand Prix motorcycle racing

By season

Season	Class	Motorcycle	Team	Race	Win	Podium	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd
2002	125cc	Italjet	Italjet Racing Service	3	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2003	125cc	Honda	Metasystem Racing Service	9	0	0	0	0	0	NC
2014	MotoGP	Honda	Drive M7 Aspar	4	0	0	0	0	1	27th
Total				16	0	0	0	0	1

Races by year

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

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Pts
2002	125cc	Italjet	JPN	RSA	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT 24	NED 28	GBR 24	GER	CZE	POR	BRA	PAC	MAL	AUS	VAL			NC	0
2003	125cc	Honda	JPN 26	RSA Ret	SPA 30	FRA 24	ITA 30	CAT 27	NED Ret	GBR Ret	GER 23	CZE	POR	BRA	PAC	MAL	AUS	VAL			NC	0
2014	MotoGP	Honda	QAT	AME	ARG	SPA	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	INP Ret	CZE 15	GBR 16	RSM 16	ARA	JPN	AUS	MAL	VAL	27th	1

References

1. Ex-Honda boss Leon Camier lands new role with WorldSBK team for 2024 bikesportnews, 19 February 2024. Retrieved 25 February 2024
2. WSB: Leon Camier named as new Honda team manager Motorcycle News, 18 January 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021
3. Camier joins Barni Ducati for 2020 WorldSBK season wsbk.com, 22 October 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019
4. Motorcycle Racing Online – Leon Camier scoops 2005 British Supersport crown. F1network.net. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
5. . Biker247.com (3 August 2005). Retrieved 27 August 2011.
6. Pinchin, Gary. (28 August 2007) British Superbikes: Leon Camier's operation a success – | Motorcycle Sport | WSB | BSB | MotoGP | TT & Road races | MCN. Motorcyclenews.com. Retrieved 27 August 2011.
7. "Camier to replace Nakano at Aprilia". VisorDown. Magicalia Ltd. 29 September 2009. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
8. "Aprilia savours new landmark result". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 2 June 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
9. "Camier shows fighting spirit with 16th to podium". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 2 August 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
10. Jake Gagne completes Red Bull Honda World Superbike Team line up for 2018 Honda Racing, 7 December 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2018
11. Moriwaki Althea Honda Team officially launch their 2019 colours and team hondaproracing.com Retrieved 28 July 2019
12. . Archived from the original on 25 December 2008.
13. Camier scoops Supersport title | BSB News | Oct 2005. Crash.Net (13 October 2005). Retrieved 27 August 2011.
14. . Archived from the original on 21 November 2008.
15. Airwaves Ducati Back In BSB With Byrne & Camier 19 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Londonbikers.com (7 November 2007). Retrieved 27 August 2011.
16. . Archived from the original on 16 May 2009. Retrieved 10 August 2009.
17. BSB: Camier celebrates BSB championship title – British Superbikes – BSB Blog – Mirror.co.uk 29 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Blogs.mirror.co.uk (27 September 2009). Retrieved 27 August 2011.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leon Camier.

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