BSB: What is the 'Showdown'?

If you’re a seasoned follower of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship, you’ll know that this weekend’s ninth round of the 2018 season marks an important point – the Showdown decider.

After this weekend, six riders will go on to fight for the coveted Bennetts BSB crown over the final three rounds of the season.

However, if you’re new to BSB or just a casual follower and don’t really know what all this ‘Showdown’ stuff is about, read on for a brief explanation!

The ‘Showdown’ was a system introduced by BSB bosses in 2010 after two seasons in which individual riders had dominated the championship and sealed the title well in advance of the final round.

The idea behind the Showdown is simple, it’s a format that guarantees to take the title fight to the final round of the season and that it has. Since 2010, the BSB title has been decided in one of the three races at the final round and in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2017 the winner hasn’t been decided until the very final race.

How it works

The season is split into two parts: The ‘Main Season’, which covers rounds one to nine and the ‘Showdown’, the final three rounds.

Over the main season, one of the riders’ main objectives is to get themselves into top six of the championship standings as it’s the top six riders at the end of the ‘main season’ who go on to fight for the title.

At the end of the main season, the top six are all elevated to 500 points plus what are known as ‘podium points’.

Podium points are accrued through podium finishes over the first eight rounds with five awarded for a win, three for second and one for third.

For example, Leon Haslam who currently leads the Bennetts BSB championship with 330 points and 53 podium credits would start the Showdown with 553 points.

The top six riders then fight it out for the title over the final three rounds (Oulton Park, Assen and Brands Hatch) using conventional points (25 for a win, 20 for second, 16 for third etc).

While those six are fighting for the title, the remainder of the grid battle it out to win the BSB Riders’ Cup – the award for finishing best of the rest – but with the final three rounds often being job hunting time, it’s not unusual to see riders outside the top six battling at the sharp end and causing bother for the ‘Showdown’ contenders – making for a super-exciting final three rounds…

So, this weekend at Silverstone is the final round of the main season – meaning this weekend’s three races provide one last opportunity for riders to secure themselves a space in the top six.

At present, there are just four spaces available with Leon Haslam and Jake Dixon an insurmountable amount of points ahead of the chasing pack. Here’s how the championship standings lie ahead of the weekend…