Preparations in full flow as Ollerton racer Lynden Leatherland get set for the big step up

This is the most competitive race series in the country for 600cc machines and is second only in prominence to the actual Superbike championship.

The first thing for the team to consider was what class to compete in for 2024 and to work out if a budget was available.

As soon as the 2023 season finished, Lynden, father Gary and mother Karen, and their team of mechanics and helpers sat down and weighed up the options for 2024.

“Ideally I would have stayed in the BSB Junior Superstock class, as I could have used the same bike from the past season,” said Lynden.

“Unfortunately, with the demise of that class my options were to join the highly competitive Supersport class, where I could upgrade my current bike for use, or to have to purchase a new bike and compete in the new sport bike class.”

The team decided to make the jump to the Supersport class, and the preparations started in earnest.

Lynden is not a professional racer but realistically has to go through the same preparations as those taken by the pros.

“I regularly attend my local gym where I undertake both cardio and weight training,” he said.

“I am not the biggest person in the world and have had to try and build up my muscle base to help me try to physically muscle my 600 Yamaha around the really demanding British race circuits, which also means watching what I eat and maintaining a healthy diet.”

To try and keep ‘bike fit’ during the winter, Lynden tries to get out on his pit bike as many times as possible at local karting circuits.

The bikes are obviously smaller, but it keeps a rider active and reminds the muscles of what they should be doing.

Lynden will be running two machines in 2024, one for each of the two respective championships he will be competing in.

Both bikes are YZF-R6 Yamahas, and both have been fully stripped down and refreshed for 2024.

This basically means the engines have been totally stripped down by experts to check for wear and tear and refresh and relevant parts.

This is a very costly business and takes a good chunk out of the race budget.

So the team are grateful to Palmer Performance and Neil and Tony at nearby Parkitt Performance for their help.

Race fairings and all of the bodywork is refreshed, along with the wheels and bike frames, in order to present the team in a professional manner, with new helmets and race leathers also on the shopping list.

Motorcycle racing is an expensive sport, and a large part of the closed season activities are dictated by the size of race budget you have.

“A number of teams go over to Spain for warmer weather winter testing, but we simply cant afford to do that,” said Lynden.

“The team are largely self-funded by the family and also receive some support from local loyal sponsors.”

Motorsport is an expensive business and with the large budget required, the team spend a lot of time in messaging local companies to seek sponsorship to assist with the funding.

This is a really difficult area as everyone recognises the current tough financial position but the team stress that any form of financial assistance is greatly appreciated.

They know that people can assume that riders are seeking multi thousand-pound sponsorship deals but the reality is that any support, such as buying a set of tyres for a weekend or paying for a barrel of race fuel is hugesly helpful.

Any sponsors are invited along to the race meetings where they can then see their names on the bikes and join in the activities.

“Sponsorship is a really difficult area, and we send literally hundreds of emails with details of our 2024 plans to local companies, hoping that we can find those people who would like to be more involved with motorcycle racing and see their name on the bikes,” said Lynden.

If there is anyone out there that would like to help, contact Lynden via his LL41 Facebook page and he will send you details.