Young Guns storm Castle?

The Castle Combe Superbike Grand National is the ideal opportunity for young riders to prove their worth: It isn't a championship round, so they are under no pressure to pick up points, and with a lot of the more experienced riders not taking part, it leaves the field open to the new talent.

Two such young riders who are determined to do well this weekend are James Buckingham and Tommy Hill and, judging by the timesheets, a podium is not out of the question for either.

Buckingham is currently leading the BSB Privateer Cup and was offered the ride at Castle Combe after William Dunlop - who was originally supposed to ride the Rizla Suzuki, broke his collarbone - plus Buckingham managed to out qualify the Rizla machines at the Croft BSB meeting, catching the eye of Suzuki.

"I need to do well and prove I can get on with the team and ride alright, so if one of the other boys gets injured later in the year, maybe I can get one of their rides at a BSB round," said Buckingham. " That way I get to show them my stuff on a track that I know, hopefully I can do it here, impress some people, impress some teams."

Indeed, James is well aware that everyone is watching his progress: "They all look at the results and the times all the bosses they know what they are looking at. I'm only twenty one so...it's about some youngsters come along to get rid of the old gits!"

Hill, who rides the big bang Virgin Mobile Samsung Yamaha, echoed Buckingham's sentiments: "There are a lot of young riders now a days in the Supersport Championship as well, Craig Jones, Tom Sykes, Cal Crutchlow, you've got Johnny Rea too for the Red Bull Rookies. The British Championship is producing a lot of riders and it has a lot of older more experienced riders in it that it is hard for us younger riders to race against them - we've got the ability and the aggression and determination but obviously we're lacking in experience."

However, it will take a bit more experience before both riders catch up with the BSB front runners, as Tommy confessed: "That is what we are going to be lacking for a few years, as Reynolds, Emmett and Rutter have all been riding for a lot of time now, so that is what we are losing out on. Hopefully we can get some good rides and show them how it's done."