James Toseland crowned World Superbike champion

Honda’s awesome CBR1000RR Fireblade and James Toseland have been crowned World Superbike champions!

James Toseland took his HANNspree Ten Kate Honda to the top of the 2007 championship at Magny Cours yesterday when his seventh and sixth position finishes were enough to scoop his second World Superbike title and the first for the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade and his Ten Kate team.

James said: “I have led the championship from Qatar and this has been the best World Superbike season I have ever experienced in my seven years of competing. I have been pushed to the absolute limit and to win by just two points is unbelievable. To get pole position and the series title at my last Superbike round is amazing.”

This may be the first World Superbike title for the CBR1000RR Fireblade, but this stunning machine is used to top accolades, including one from Bike magazine in the UK where the Fireblade was the highest-placed litre-class superbike in their top 150 run-down of motorcycles on sale in the UK for 2007.

Bike magazine said: “Riding litre sportsbikes fast used to be the preserve of those possessing talent or powerful good luck. Honda’s extraordinary achievement is to open this high-performance world to all but the most resolutely inept. The ’blade is ridiculously, brilliantly fast but at the same time reassuringly controlled. Brilliant it is.”

The Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade is still in pole-position to retain the Bennetts British Superbike Championship this year with Ryuichi Kiyonari at the final round at Brands Hatch which takes place this weekend.

For 2008 an all-new CBR1000RR will be released and there’s no doubt that this amazing machine will build upon the performance of the current machine in time for the 2008 championship battle!

This represents a magnificent double in the World Superbike series for Honda, Ten Kate and HANNspree with the CBR600RR-7 taking the World Supersport title with rider Kenan Sofuoglu way back at the Brands Hatch round. The new-for-2007 CBR600R-7 celebrated its sixth-straight win in the World Supersport Championship this year. Out on the road, the CBR600RR also took the UK’s Bike magazine’s machine of the year title. In its 20th birthday year the CBR was found to be: “Nothing short of a revelation”, according to Bike magazine. “The brakes are verging on perfect and there are no current sportsbikes that will change direction as rapidly or easily as the new RR,” they added. As the Honda CBR600 celebrates its 20th birthday, it has won nine of the last 16 British Supersport titles making it the machine of choice for champions!

Whether you’re out on track or on the road, Honda’s Supersport range of machines are unbeatable – just ask our World champions James and Kenan!

For more information on Honda’s award-winning Supersport range of motorcycles simply log-on to: honda.co.uk/motorcycles/