The Supersport class is one of the main support races to the BSB series and features road-going, production based ‘showroom look-alike’ machines, although changes are permitted to exhausts, suspension internals and also tyres.

They are powered by engines over 400cc and up to 600cc four stroke, four cylinder: 600cc up to 675cc four stroke, three cylinder, or by engines over 600cc and up to 750cc four stroke, two cylinder, with minimum weights of 162kg, 165kg and 170kg respectively.

The introduction of the Supersport Cup, running at each round of the British Supersport Championship, has also proved to be highly successful. The Cup is aimed at young riders wishing to race in Supersport and provides a cost effective introduction for them to this highly professional category. These 'privateer' entrants are able to reduce their costs by selecting which rounds they wish to compete in as they will only need to consider their ten best points scores over the year in the compilation of the final overall standings. In this way, Cup riders, whose teams must be of independent standing with no direct manufacturer support or influence, are able to miss-out the events where, due to their location, they represent the biggest commitment in terms of cost and time.

As the Cup is designed to encourage newcomers to the category, entry is restricted to riders who have not completed two full seasons of British Supersport class competition in the last three years. At each round a separate podium ceremony is held for the first three riders to finish in each of the Championship and Cup.

Grid positions are derived on the basis of performance by all riders - Championship and Cup – over two timed qualifying sessions, with the fastest rider taking pole position through to the slowest rider taking the final position on the grid. There are four riders on each row of the grid. Points scoring in both the Championship and the Cup is awarded to the top 15 finishers on the basis of 25-20-16-13-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

This year’s British Supersport Championship sees many manufacturers going head to head across 12 rounds, with experienced race ace Steve Plater one of the hottest championship title contenders, racing with Honda (UK)’s HM Plant Honda team.