2005 BSB official launch

The official media launch of the 2005 Bennetts British Superbike championship took place at the glamorous Audi Forum in the West End of London on Wednesday, March 16.

Almost all of the top riders competing in the 2005 series attended with the exceptions of Leon Haslam and James Haydon who were testing for the GSE team in Spain, and John Reynolds, who is still aiming to recover from a broken leg in time to ride at the first round at Brands Hatch on Easter Monday.

This still left names like Sean Emmett, Scott Smart, Jeremy McWilliams, Ryuichi Kyonari, Steve Plater, Glen Richards and Dean Thomas, along with displays of most of the bikes competing this year.

One reason for the choice of venue is the new Audi Quattro Performance Award, which runs parallel to the championship, with points for qualifying, pole, race wins, and fastest laps. The winner gets a limited edition Audi TT Coupe Quattro worth £30,000, and in 2004, the car would have gone to series runner-up Michael Rutter.

“It’s a new bike, and new tracks, because I haven’t ridden about half of them before,” revealed Jeremy McWilliams, shortly before dashing off when a ticket warden was seen near the Irishman’s car.

See the BSB stars reveal their best ever biking moments, below.