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James Webbs racing career to date!
2003: James won the King of Clubs Championship with a round left to go. He also finished a great 4th in the MRO Championship competing against a lot of the British Superbike contenders on their RS125s. He holds the lap record at Silverstone and at Oulton Park on the club circuits. This was all achieved in this his first season on his GP125 Honda. James also achieved the ‘Minnie Grenfell’ Award which was awarded to the most promising rider of the future. Previous names on this award are Mike Hailwood, Geoff Duke, Phil Read, Dave Potter and many more. Following this James was picked out of over 800 applicants to be part of the ACU Academy, who were took him through fitness training, presentation and interview skills, being really shy this helped James enormously and he was thrilled to be picked and given this training opportunity with the ACU.
2004: James competed in the British Championship. Having had technical problems at the start of the season he still managed to finish 9th at Thruxton, 6th at Brands Hatch, 6th at Croft, 11th at Mallory (starting from Pit Lane), and qualified 3rd at Cadwell Park. James finished 15th in the Championship having had difficulties with set up at the beginning of the year and missing 2 rounds. He is still pleased with his achievements knowing he was down on the speed traps all year.
2005: James had another disappointing year in the British 125 Series having started the year on the podium at the first round at Brands Hatch, things got worse. Once again James suffered with bike set-up problems and being underpowered. James persevered through the year having one problem after the other until a freak accident at Knock Hill in the warm up session left James with a broken ankle. James decided to forget the 125’s and moved on to a 600.
James entered the last MRO on a standard 2003 Yamaha R6, he knew that the other riders having ridden all year on Super Sport 600’s would have the experience and advantage over him, but James was just riding for practice and track time on the standard machine. He rode brilliantly finished 6th overall and his fastest lap would have broken the R6 lap record at BSB. This made up James’s mind and he decided to stay with the 600cc machines.
2006: Thanks to friends and James Reidhaven from Gelatine Rocks we managed to raise the money for James to compete in the R6 Cup. All set to have a good year when disaster struck, James’s mum was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and although determined to fight and get through it, it was a devastating blow to the family. Having told both the boys to concentrate on their racing and to try and stay focused, it must have been hard for them. Therefore James had had no winter practising on a 600 and went to Brands for the opening round very green. He had a commendable 9th and again in the following round but gradually getting to grips with the R6 things started to improve.
James has had not practice bike to practice on this year in between the BSB meetings and has felt a little cheated knowing that his fellow riders have had practice bikes and plenty of riding in between the BSB meetings. However, he has kept focused and keeps going, having some fantastic results towards the end of the year James finished 3rd in the Championship.
2007: James has had a bit of an up and down year in 2007 he started the year riding for Team Buff Kawasaki and although there were good intentions from the team at the start of the year they just couldn’t stick to them.
James was determined this year to make a name for himself and to prove his riding ability in the Supersport Class, unfortunately this was not going to happen and the Supersport ride fell through. The opportunity arose to join the R6 Cup boys and to race in the Virgin Media Cup on the standard R6, this was a decision that was very well thought of and finally made, so there he was riding in the Virgin Media Cup, having missed the first two rounds and joining the rest of the team at Silverstone, round 3. James dominated the class by storm, he qualified in pole position and won the race with over 3 seconds to spare. He went on to dominate the series, collecting consistent pole positions, setting lap records and winning in style.
Towards the end of the year James was given the opportunity to ride for the MSS Discovery Kawasaki Team, James absolutely loved riding for the Team and was so keen to do well for them, having had no previous practice or experience on the competitive Kawasaki ride he managed to qualify on the front two rows of the grid at the final rounds of Cadwell, Donnington and Brands Hatch.
2008: James was given the fantastic opportunity to ride for Padgetts in the Supersport Class and although the season started with a somewhat sticky start James absorbed under the supervision of Clive Padgett with help from his team mate John McGuiness and the whole team and kept learning and learning as the year went on. Collecting his first podium of the year at Cadwell Park and also setting a new lap record in the process. James finished the year strong and is certainly up for the challenge of winning the Supersport Championship in 2009.
2009: James has been riding in the 600 Supersport Championships again this year for Padgetts with team mates John McGuiness and Steve Brogan riding in the 1000 Superstock class. He has consistently been finishing in the top 6 riding amongst experienced riders such as Steve Plater; James is looking to go further, much further and is now looking at openings that can take him there for 2010. He is looking to compete in the Superstock class and possibly getting a chance to compete in a few European rounds and maybe even get a chance to ride a Superbike.
2010: James, unable to raise the total amount of backing needed this year to compete with a team in the Superstock 1000 Class, resolved to riding a Harley Davidson in the Harley Davidson Challenge. “The Foundry” in Canterbury offered James the ride and all went extremely well until The Foundry had to pull out of the Challenge due to their own franchise problems. James therefore missed out on a couple of rounds and picked up a ride at KnockHill to continue the Challenge. Here he dominated warm up sessions and was very confident, due to poor weather, however, the event was cancelled. James, now having a confidence boost had a fantastic ride at at Cadwell having 2 podium finishes. James also had a few rides on the Aprillia 1000 Superstock and whilst developing and adjusting to the bigger bike managed to achieve a couple of top 15 positions in the half a dozen meetings that he was able to compete in. His year however finished on a somewhat higher not when he was offered a ride from a Polish Team “Bogdanka Racing” to compete in the World Superstock Championship on a Honda – he flew out to Germany, had to learn to ride a Honda and Learn a new track but did really well finishing 16th in the Race only 0.002 seconds of 15th and his first ever World championship points. The team were extremely pleased with him and he was really happy that the team had honoured his requests in the changes required for the bike (see attached “Team Press Release”.
2011: James has been offered several rides for 2011 and at the moment is looking to raise the funding for a Superstock 1000 ride, 600 Supersport ride or Superbike ride all offers that he has received require some funding. He is, however, riding in the Harley Davidson Challenge again and looking for personal sponsorship to cover wages, travel and accommodation. This of course would mean TRIPLE TV coverage for anyone helping James out and loads of National and Local Media Publicity.
James is a very determined rider and tends to have a rule to win. He is keen, eager and hungry for it. He keeps a good check on his personal fitness, training every day without fail. James’s ambitions for the future are to move into the Superbike Class and the World Championships. To meet these ambitions he needs your help and support, please consider it, he missed out in 2010 through lack of financial help, having proved himself at World Level 2011 could be his year. Thanks a lot.
TEAM MANAGER TESTIMONIAL FROM BOGDANKA RACING
Press Release - Bogdanka Racing - 08.09.2010
Bogdanka Racing and James Webb inches from points at the Nurburgring
Despite not knowing the track nor the bike, Lincolnshire’s James Webb produced a stirling performance finishing in 16’th position while substituting for an injured Polish racer, Marcin Walkowiak, at the eight round of ten of FIM Superstock 1000 Cup at the German Nurburgring circuit.
With Poland’s youngest ever national champion and country’s first point scorer in the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup, Marcin Walkowiak still out of action due to a shoulder injury, one of the Poland’s most successful motorcycle racing teams - Bogdanka Racing - decided to offer the hot seat to a British rider, James Webb. Despite not knowing the Nurburgring circuit and having never ridden the Honda CBR1000RR, the 21-year-old from Lincoln impressed right from the word go, finishing the first practice in 20’th position in the 30-strong grid and improving his lap times by more than four seconds by the end of Sunday’s race. Having qualified in the 22’nd position, Webb was involved in a four rider battle for fifteenth place in the Sunday’s 11-lap race, and just missed that last point scoring spot by a mere 0,3 of a second with Italian Ayrton Bavodini claiming yet another victory.
While Bogdanka Racing scored no points in Germany, the team was still overjoyed with Webb’s performance, while at the same time being massively impressed with his professionalism, progress and bike set-up skills. Expecting Marcin Walkowiak to return to action for the final two rounds of the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup, Bogdanka Racing is not ruling out teaming up with James Webb again. For more on Bodganka Racing please visit www.bogdankaracing.com for more on James Webb please visit www.jameswebbracing.co.uk .
James Webb
“I’ve struggled a little bit getting used to the bike and the circuit but on Sunday morning we got a really good setup which suited my riding style and it was a lot easier to go fast. I’ve not had to learn a track for five years and I’m not used to that but I was really happy with our improvements over the weekend, both with bike setup and my riding. I knew I had to get my head down in the race and it was a shame we couldn’t get a couple of points but I didn’t know it was the last lap. Otherwise I could’ve get it but on the other hand I could’ve pushed hard and crash. I was right on the tail for the guy in 15’th but that’s racing. I’ve not had a lot of time on a bike this year so it was good for me and I really hope I can have another opportunity to ride with Bogdanka Racing and carry on from where we finished this weekend. Working with Bogdanka was different to what I’m used to but it was very good. Everything they’ve done to the bike made it better and we’ve not made a step in the wrong direction all weekend. Damian, the mechanic, was one of the best mechanics I’ve ever worked with, just so dedicated.”
Igor Piasecki :: Bogdanka Racing, Team Manager
“I am very happy that we’ve had the chance to work James. He proved to be a very professional rider. It was a very intense but also a very successful weekend for all of us. James missed a point by inches but he charged through from 22’nd to 16’Th position. His work with the mechanics inside the garage was equally impressive and enabled us to vastly improve the settings of the bike. He’s very professional and bearing in mind it was his first start on a new bike and a new track, it was a superb result.”
Media contact: Michal Fialkowski ,
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, Mob: +48 782 676 126
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