Two-time British road racing champion Leon Camier is convinced he can finally make an impact at Phillip Island, at this weekend’s opening round of the 2013 Superbike World Championship.
Camier has struggled at the 4.445km circuit, producing just one top 10 finish in six races, but now that he has a Suzuki significantly more powerful than last year, the 26-year-old believes he can break through to get his championship quest off to a good start.
“The team hasn’t made massive changes to the bike, but it’s been refined a lot,” Camier from Ashford in England said.
“Everything is working very well, engine performance has improved, and we’ve made some big improvements in electronics.
“For sure, we still have to work a lot harder to be consistently at the front, but until the season gets underway it will be difficult to know where we are at.”
After four days of testing on the resurfaced Phillip Island surface, Camier has finished third overall on the timesheets behind Ducati’s Carlos Checa and BMW’s Marco Melandri.
And he has found out some of the idiosyncracies of the new surface the hard way, crashing twice at high speed.
“I am a bit bashed and bruised,” said Camier.
“It’s a new tarmac, but it still hurts.”
The opening round of the Superbike championship runs from Friday February 22 to Sunday February 24.