Leon Camier

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

After working as a race team manager, Camier became a rider-coach for Sam Lowes and Elf Marc VDS Racing. The team competes in Moto2 and entered the Superbike World Championship using a Ducati Panigale 955.

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.

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

Career Early career After beginning Grasstrack racing at the age of six 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. This period built a working relationship with Honda which included contesting the 2005 Suzuka 8 Hours race in 2005 at the age of 18 (unusually young for a non-Japanese rider).

Camier 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)

2007 was Camier's 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 sixth in both races amidst Honda dominance. His season ended with a large crash at Cadwell Park causing a broken left femur and right pelvis.

For 2008, Camier 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 won the title with four races to go 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) dressed 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. 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 sixth and seventh.

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

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

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

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 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

British Superbike Championship

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

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 GBR10 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 GBR13 GBR6 20th 32 Aprilia CZE CZE GER GER ITA ITA FRARet FRARet POR6 POR7 2010 Aprilia AUS11 AUS11 POR5 POR5 SPARet SPARet NED3 NEDRet ITA5 ITA4 RSA6 RSARet USA4 USA2 SMR6 SMR11 CZERet CZE8 GBR6 GBR3 GERDNS GERDNS ITA ITA FRA FRA 12th 164 2011 Aprilia AUS13 AUS6 EUR8 EUR3 NEDRet NED4 ITA8 ITARet USA4 USA2 SMR6 SMRRet SPA3 SPA8 CZE7 CZERet GBR15 GBR5 GER8 GERRet ITA15 ITA3 FRA4 FRA6 POR12 POR6 7th 208 2012 Suzuki AUS17 AUS12 ITARet ITA8 NEDRet NED14 ITAC ITA15 EUR9 EUR4 USA13 USA11 SMR10 SMR15 SPA9 SPARet CZE14 CZE9 GBRRet GBRRet RUS15 RUS5 GER5 GER3 POR11 PORRet FRARet FRA10 14th 115.5 2013 Suzuki AUS9 AUS9 SPADNS SPADNS NED9 NED7 ITA9 ITA7 GBRRet GBR13 POR4 PORRet ITA7 ITA7 RUS9 RUSC GBR3 GBR5 GERRet GERDNS TURDNS TURDNS USA USA FRA FRA SPA8 SPA6 11th 132 2014 BMW AUS AUS SPA12 SPA12 NED13 NEDRet ITA11 ITA12 GBRDNS GBRDNS MAL10 MAL12 ITA ITA POR POR 16th 37 MV Agusta USA15 USA10 SPA SPA FRA FRA QAT QAT 2015 MV Agusta AUS10 AUS8 THARet THARet SPA10 SPA15 NED10 NED10 ITARet ITARet GBR9 GBRRet PORRet PORRet ITA13 ITA16 USA10 USA10 MAL13 MAL12 SPA9 SPA8 FRA5 FRA15 QATRet QATRet 13th 89 2016 MV Agusta AUS7 AUSRet THA11 THA11 SPARet SPA16 NED4 NED9 ITA6 ITA5 MAL10 MAL9 GBR4 GBR5 ITA8 ITARet USA11 USADNS GER5 GER4 FRA7 FRA4 SPA7 SPARet QAT18 QAT13 8th 168 2017 MV Agusta AUS5 AUS8 THA8 THARet SPA11 SPA10 NED10 NED6 ITA6 ITARet GBR6 GBR6 ITA11 ITARet USA6 USARet GER5 GER6 POR4 PORRet FRA4 FRARet SPA12 SPA12 QAT9 QAT9 8th 168 2018 Honda AUS AUS THA THA SPA SPA NED NED ITA ITA GBR GBR CZE CZE USA USA ITA ITA POR POR FRA FRA ARG ARG QAT QAT 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 AUS AUS THA THA THA SPA SPA SPA NED NED NED ITA ITA ITA SPA SPA SPA ITA ITA ITA GBR GBR GBR USA USA USA POR POR POR FRA FRA FRA ARG ARG ARG QAT QAT QAT 17th 51 2020 Ducati AUS AUS AUS 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 SeasonClassMotorcycleTeamRaceWinPodiumPoleFLapPtsPlcd 125cc Italjet Italjet Racing Service 3 0 0 0 0 0 NC 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 CAT24 NED28 GBR24 GER CZE POR BRA PAC MAL AUS VAL NC 0 2003 125cc Honda JPN26 RSARet SPA30 FRA24 ITA30 CAT27 NEDRet GBRRet GER23 CZE POR BRA PAC MAL AUS VAL NC 0 2014 MotoGP Honda QAT AME ARG SPA FRA ITA CAT NED GER INPRet CZE15 GBR16 RSM16 ARA JPN AUS MAL VAL 27th 1