Chris Walker

Chris Walker (born 25 March 1972 ) is a British motorcycle road racer and former scrambler with the nickname The Stalker. He is a four-time runner-up in the British Superbike Championship, and a former race winner in the Superbike World Championship. For the 2015 season, Walker signed for Tommy Hill's Be Wiser Kawasaki Team aboard a Kawasaki ZX-10R in the British Superbike Championship, following his 2014 season with Lloyds British GBmoto squad. and the team folded in September, leaving Walker without a ride for the final two race meetings of the season.

In early 2016, Walker announced he would no longer participate in superbikes, instead switching to the British Sidecar Championship, initially with a two-year contract. With no previous experience, Walker stated he was excited by the future opportunities.

Like Formula One legend Ayrton Senna, Walker developed Bell's Palsy in 2002 which paralysed part of his face. He lists his determination as his best feature, and his love of puddings as his worst. He usually races #9. He returned to the grid in 2021 taking on the Ducati TriOptions Cup.

Early years and British Superbike Championship 1995–2000 Walker only started road racing in 1995 after many years as an accomplished motocross rider, but by the end of that year and into 1996, he rose through the ranks with ease and had ridden in Grands Prix and scored points.

In 1997, Walker challenged for the prestigious British Superbike championship with Yamaha, finishing as runner-up to experienced team-mate Niall Mackenzie. He switched to Kawasaki for 1998, winning in the season's first race, before it became clear that the Yamahas of Mackenzie and Steve Hislop were the bikes to beat. Injury to Hislop allowed Walker to take second in the series again, a feat he repeated behind Troy Bayliss’ Ducati in 1999.

Walker came agonisingly close to the 2000 title, when an engine failure in his Suzuki took him out of a winning position with just three laps remaining of the final race at Donington Park, leaving Walker in tears and gifting the title to GSE Ducati’s Neil Hodgson. He did however take a second place at Brands Hatch in the World Superbike round that year, the best of his many wild card entries in the UK rounds (and occasionally Assen in the Netherlands) over the years.

500 cc World Championship 2001 and World Superbikes 2002–2006 Walker made an attempt at the 500 cc World Championship in 2001. He predicted that "For me it's going to be the toughest year ever", which proved accurate, as the factory Shell-sponsored Honda was hard to ride and forced Walker to override, resulting in many huge crashes. In , he moved to the Superbike World Championship, initially with the Fuchs Kawasaki team.

Walker placed sixth in the championship for GSE Ducati in , and 11th for Carl Fogarty's Foggy Petronas team in , respectively teamed with James Toseland and Troy Corser (both of whom won the title the next season, Toseland riding the Fila Ducati to success and Corser the Alstare Suzuki in ).

In , Walker joined the PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse team, proving to be the most consistent Kawasaki rider in terms of pace and results, securing one podium finish (3rd place, round 6 at Valencia) and finishing seventh place overall.

saw Walker teamed up with Frenchman Régis Laconi and Spain's Fonsi Nieto on a Kawasaki Europe backed ZX-10R for PSG. Walker secured his maiden Superbike World Championship race win on 3 September 2006 in Race 1 at Assen, Netherlands in his 131st race. Starting the race in 13th position, and dropping to 26th position at the first corner following an excursion onto the grass, Walker braved the torrential rain and a high rate of attrition to win in a time of 44 minutes, 23.501 seconds. He came ninth overall in the championship, 19 points ahead of Nieto as the highest Kawasaki.

Despite his finishing position, Walker was subsequently dropped by PSG for the season, while Kawasaki still supported PSG as an official factory team.

Return to the British Superbike Championship 2007

Walker initially struggled on the Rizla Suzuki in the British Superbike championship, occasionally outpaced by rookie team-mate Cal Crutchlow. When Neil Hodgson tested the bike some speculated that Walker's ride was under threat. The team insisted it wasn't, and at Oulton Park, he took third in race one, in tricky conditions which saw many top riders (such as Jonathan Rea, Gregorio Lavilla and Tom Sykes) crash out. This was only his second podium of the season. His points tally for the year was 225, comparing favourably to his team-mate's 152.

World Supersport 2008 Walker was not retained for 2008, but raced in the Supersport World Championship for the very first time in and , for the GIL Kawasaki team alongside teammate Katsuaki Fujiwara. However, the bike was not competitive, and he switched to the Paul Bird VK Vent-Axia team in World Superbikes for the final five rounds of the season. He opened with minor points at Brands Hatch, but crashed twice at Donington Park.

British Superbike Championship 2009–2013 For 2009, Walker was optimistic of a top British Superbike Championship ride, as all the established good riders are gone. He ultimately joined the Henderson Yamaha team, but struggled for much of the year. He was competitive in race 1 at Mallory Park until chaos and controversy struck. He was running second when Josh Brookes lost control of his bike and catapulted race leader Simon Andrews, dropping oil from Brookes' Honda. Walker was one of five other riders who either crashed or downed their bikes to avoid crashing. The red flag was shown, but these seven riders were excluded from the results, due to an unexpected application of the rules. Brookes received a two-race ban for his mistake.

For 2010, Walker was released by the Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha. It looked like he would not be racing in 2010, but he arranged a deal with on a privately run Suzuki tuned by former BSB rider Ray Stringer just a week before the opening round. After two races, Walker was offered a ride in the MSS Kawasaki team when Simon Andrews was injured in a crash while guesting in World Superbikes. He returned to the Suzuki once Andrews was fit again, but raced for SMT Honda at Snetterton, scoring the team's best 2010 results of two sevenths and an eleventh in the process

During 2011 and 2012, Walker rode for Pr1mo Bournemouth Kawasaki, and for 2013, he rode with Quattro Plant Kawasaki.

British Superbike Championship 2014 and 2015

As the oldest rider competing in British Superbikes, Walker's extensive experience with superbike machines and Kawasaki makes him ideal as lead-rider to develop the new squad, partnered by Danny Buchan, fresh from his 2014 success as Pirelli National Superstock 1000 Champion.

Former BSB rider and 2012 Champion Tommy Hill was the team-manager, making his return to racing after three years' absence developing his graphic design business. With over six podium finishes already this year and a 100% race finish record, Chris and Ashley lie a comfortable fourth in the championship with only four races remaining.

British Superbike Championship 2017 According to an article by Oli Rushby on Motorcycle News.com, Walker sustained injuries during the "eight round of the 2017 MCE British Superbike Championship at Cadwell Park after a nasty crash in Friday’s Sidecar session." Rushby went on to report that "he multiple BSB runner-up crashed his Kawasaki-powered Santander Salt outfit at Mansfield and was taken to hospital with suspected back injuries", before being "confirmed he sustained a break to his T4 vertebrae... as well as a broken nose."

2019 Walker is planning on participating in the Hyundai Construction British Sidecar Championship with TAG Racing with the support of team-mate Tom Christie.

Personal life Walker's father John was the proprietor of John Walker Superbikes, a retail motorcycle dealership in Langley Mill, Nottingham, which also owned Fox's Kawasaki in Mapperley, Nottingham, and Wraggs Motorcycles in Mansfield.

Walker lives in Ollerton, Nottinghamshire,

Walker is married to Rachel Walker and has a daughter, Rosie Walker.

Career statistics Stats correct as of 9 July 2012

By championship

British Superbike Championship Year Bike 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Pos Pts Ref R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R1 R2 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 2007 Suzuki BHGP BHGP THR THR SIL SIL OUL OUL SNE SNE MOP MOP KNO KNO OUL OUL MAL MAL CRO CRO CAD CAD DON DON BHI BHI 7th 225 2009 Yamaha BHI BHI OUL OUL DON DON THR THR SNE SNE KNO KNO MAL MAL BHGP BHGP BHGP CAD CAD CRO CRO SIL SIL OUL OUL OUL 9th 141 2010 Suzuki BHI BHI THR THR MAL MAL KNO KNO 10th 130 Kawasaki OUL OUL CAD CAD Honda SNE SNE SNE BHGP BHGP BHGP CAD CAD CRO CRO SIL SIL OUL OUL OUL 2011 Kawasaki BHI BHI OUL OUL CRO CRO THR THR KNO KNO SNE SNE OUL OUL BHGP BHGP BHGP CAD CAD CAD DON DON SIL SIL BHGP BHGP BHGP 12th 105 2012 Kawasaki BHI BHI THR THR OUL OUL OUL SNE SNE KNO KNO OUL OUL OUL BHGP BHGP CAD CAD DON DON ASS ASS SIL SIL BHGP BHGP BHGP 9th 138 2013 Kawasaki BHI7 BHI8 THRRet THR7 OUL9 OUL6 KNO5 KNO5 SNERet SNE6 BHGPRet BHGPRet OUL9 OULRet OUL12 CAD6 CAD6 DON7 DON8 ASSNC ASS6 SIL13 SIL11 BHGP7 BHGP5 BHGP9 10th 168 2014 Kawasaki BHI2 BHI5 OULRet OUL8 SNE6 SNERet KNO5 KNO3 BHGP4 BHGP9 THR7 THR5 OULRet OUL5 OUL7 CAD3 CAD8 DON11 DON10 ASS16 ASSRet SIL12 SIL12 BHGP10 BHGPRet BHGP10 6th 525 2015 Kawasaki DON8 DON10 BHI10 BHI13 OUL11 OUL9 SNE6 SNERet KNODNS KNODNS BHGPRet BHGPRet THR15 THR12 CADRet CAD15 OUL11 OUL13 OUL16 ASS17 ASS8 SIL SIL BHGP BHGP BHGP 18th 67

Superbike World Championship Year Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 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 R1 R2 2002 Kawasaki ESP10 ESP7 AUS9 AUS9 RSA8 RSA9 JPN11 JPN13 ITARet ITA10 GBR14 GBR4 GERDNS GER9 SMR7 SMR8 USA11 USA10 GBR6 GBR8 GER9 GER15 NEDRet NED7 ITA11 ITA12 9th 152 2003 Ducati ESP3 ESP4 AUS7 AUS6 JPNRet JPNRet ITA6 ITA6 GER5 GER3 GBR9 GBR8 SMR5 SMR8 USA5 USA3 GBR3 GBRRet NED5 NED8 ITARet ITA5 FRA3 FRA3 6th 234 2004 Petronas ESP3 ESP7 AUS10 AUS8 SMR6 SMR13 ITA8 ITA7 GERRet GER7 GBRRet GBR12 USARet USARet GBR9 GBR4 NED12 NED10 ITARet ITA16 FRA8 FRA8 11th 128 2005 Kawasaki QAT14 QATRet AUS9 AUSRet ESP4 ESP3 ITA8 ITA8 EUR6 EUR6 SMR8 SMR11 CZE4 CZE10 GBR5 GBR4 NEDRet NEDDNS GER GER ITA6 ITAC FRA7 FRA5 7th 160 2006 QATRet QAT16 AUS10 AUS10 ESP23 ESP7 ITA11 ITA9 EUR6 EUR8 SMRRet SMR4 CZE7 CZE10 GBR7 GBR8 NED1 NED14 GER11 GER10 ITA12 ITA14 FRA6 FRA8 9th 158 2008 Honda QAT QAT AUS AUS EUR EUR ESP ESP NED NED ITA ITA GBR GBR SMR SMR CZE CZE GBR15 GBR15 GERRet GERRet ITA18 ITA15 FRA15 FRA15 POR17 POR19 31st 5

Supersport World Championship Year Make 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Pos Pts Ref 2008 Honda QAT9 AUS14 SPA9 NED12 ITARet GER9 SMR12 CZE11 GBR EUR ITA FRA POR 16th 36