Why BSB’s radical new points structure is a winner

The MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship has a radical, not to mention complicated, new championship points structure for 2010.

It’s all been done with one aim in mind – to spice up the championship in the closing stages of the season, when, as we saw only too well last year, things can tend to get a little stagnant if someone like Leon Camier is running away with the title.

How does it work?

The actual points scoring is the same – 25-20-16-13-11-10–9-8 etc down to one point for 15th place – but for this year the season is split into two.

The first nine rounds (19 races) will become known as ‘The Regular Season’ and riders have to drop their two worst scores.

The top six ‘Title Fighters’ in the standings (which culminates at Cadwell on August 30) then go into ‘The Showdown’ – a straight for the title in the final three rounds of the championship at Croft, Silverstone and Oulton.

All the riders outside of the so-called Title Fighters will continue to race for the BSB Riders Cup, adding to their points total (less the two dropped scores) from the end of the Regular Season.

But all the races count in the Showdown phase! And it’s the same in the Evo class.

The regular season points for the top six Title Fighters are discarded after Cadwell and they are instead allotted a base level of 500 points – plus podium credit points – points awarded for any first, second and third places finishes during The Regular Season.

Any points the top six Title Fighters score in the three-round, seven-race Showdown  are added to their staring points tally (the 500 ‘base’ points plus podium points).

The aim is a championship going to the wire.  After the exceptionally dull 2009 season people surely won’t complain against that.