James Haydon

James Richard Barnaby Haydon (born 2 November 1973 in Amersham, Buckinghamshire), is a British former motorcycle racer.

He raced in 250cc and 500cc Grand Prix, MotoGP, British Superbike and the World Superbike Championship.

But instead of pursuing a career in that sport he swapped to road racing at 16 in 1990.

Also starting in Ministocks that season was Neil Hodgson who immediately became (and still is) a great friend of James'). James then moved straight into The British 125cc Championship in 1991 (grabbing a pole position, some top 10 finishes and also winning the EMRA 125cc Championship). He was then spotted by Ron Haslam for a ride on Team Great Britain in 1992 after a disappointing finish in the 1991 Superteen championship. He raced a Yamaha TZ250 and won his first British Championship race at Silverstone that same year. The next season in 1993 he just missed out on winning the British 250cc Championship (which he had dominated) after the camera he was carrying for TV came loose and jammed his back wheel in the final race causing him to crash. The same season at 19 (having already won 4 British Championship 250cc races) he competed in the 1993 British 500cc Grand Prix, finishing 11th to become the youngest ever British points-scorer in a top-division World Championship race.

He managed to finish well ahead of his mentor, the legendary Ron Haslam adding more prestige to his great performance.

In 1994 he won his first British Superbike Championship race along with two more national 250cc victories that year.

For 1995 he then jumped straight into the top level 500cc world championship as a privateer (1995 for Harris and 1996 for WCM).

He took some stunning top 10 results and impressed many with his speed on a privateer bike.

He had offers to stay in G.P.'s but he decided to move to the WSBK in 1997.

But this was with GIACO MOTO, a poorly run Team who struggled with finance and an old motorcycle.

James quit after the bike broke down 14 times.

His best result was a 9th-placed finish.

After three years in the World Championship for 1998 he returned home to the ultra competitive British Superbike championship.

He surprised many with a podium in his first race before going on to have many years of success.

He quickly became a crowd and sponsor favourite with his exciting all action style, never give up attitude and screen presence.

He raced for Team Suzuki, Team Red Bull Ducati, Team Yamaha and Team Kawasaki.

Never the luckiest rider many felt one of his best chances for the Championship came in 2000 for Ducati.

Whilst leading the Championship a terrible mid season car accident (in which he was a passenger) damaged his neck and nerves badly.

This caused him serious problems when racing and training and ruined his season.

He twice finished 4th in the standings and was always one of the fastest riders, with multiple lap records and fastest laps throughout his BSB career.

He won a total of 12 British Superbike Championship races and had over 30 podiums in the series.

In 2002 he joined Carl Fogarty's Foggy Petronas in the WSBK, developing the new bike for the first year.

It proved unreliable with multiple blow ups, a lack of parts supply and other problems dogging it throughout the year.

James had to leap from the motorcycle twice when it blew up and engulfed him in flames and fuel.

One of the lowest points came when the gearbox locked up in Germany and caused a horrific accident (putting him out for the middle of the season).

His high point was a best result of 7th in the world in Japan.

In 2004 he nearly retired after the mentally and physically draining previous season and started it without a ride.

But his pedigree could not be ignored and he was soon called up to stand in at Virgin Mobile Yamaha in the British Superbike series.

He immediately turned the Teams season around taking the bikes and Teams only win of the year and also putting it on the podium.

Despite missing many rounds he beat all the other riders in the team and finished top Yamaha in Britain.

It was also the only season in his career that he never crashed, not even in practice.

At the end of the season he also raced in the last few MotoGP's ( World Championship) for Kenny Roberts Proton team.

He retired in 2008.

He now works in media, presenting shows and race commentating on ITV and British Eurosport for World Superbike Championship and British Superbike Championship coverage, and he covers some Moto GP races when the regular commentators are unavailable.

He has worked for the BBC, Sky Sports, Motors TV, Al Jazeera and Radio 5 live and is seen as a rising talent within the media side of the sport.

He is also the guest test rider for Britain's biggest motorcycle monthly – Bike Magazine.

James got his passion for speed through his father David, a Doctor who loved fast cars and motorcycles.

He bought James his first motorcycle aged eight which he would ride in his parents garden.

He quickly moved into Motorcross and worked his way up into the top 40 in Britain in Schoolboy Motorcross.

He finished 2nd in the British 125 Ministock Championship in his first year.