For the 2021 season, Camier was announced as team manager for Honda World Superbike team, run under Honda Racing Corporation. After a long career in solo motorcycle racing he struggled with injuries and finally decided to end his competitive riding.[2]
After difficult 2018 and 2019 seasons with Honda satellite team Moriwaki Althea and suffering from injuries, for 2020 he was contracted to ride for Barni Ducati in WSBK, but continued to have shoulder injury problems and was unable to start the season and parted ways with Barni Ducati.[3]
Career
Early career
After beginning Grasstrack racing aged 6 and winning five British championships, Camier became British Junior 80 cc Road Racing champion in 1998. He won the British 125 cc title in 2001 and the British Supersport crown in 2005.[4] This period built a working relationship with Honda which included contesting the 2005 Suzuka 8 Hours race in 2005 at the age of 18[5] (unusually young for a non-Japanese rider).
He was the 2005 British Supersport and 2009 British Superbike Champion. 2010 was his first full season in the World Superbike series.
British Superbike Championship (2007–2009)
Leon Camier races at Brands Hatch in 2008Camier riding his Airwaves Yamaha during the 2009 BSB championship at Snetterton
2007 was his first season in the British Superbike Championship on a Bike Animal Honda. He led the first corners of his very first race and was on the podium in the first three races. A crash in race 6 at Silverstone and two eighth places at Oulton Park damaged his momentum however. At Snetterton, a bike failure in qualifying saw him start 29th but he moved up to 6th in both races amidst Honda dominance. His season ended with a huge crash at Cadwell Park causing a broken left femur and right pelvis.[6]
For 2009 GSE switched to Yamahas and James Ellison joined as him teammate. Camier quickly dominated the series, winning even more races than Byrne had in 2008. He clinched the title with four races to go fittingly by overtaking closest rival Ellison on the penultimate lap of race 1 at Silverstone. Immediately on returning to the pits he was greeted by Niall Mackenzie (the last man to win the BSB title on a Yamaha) decked out in his original 1998 Rob Mac Cadbury's Boost leathers. Camier ultimately won a record-breaking 18 races despite only leading out of the first corner twice. His success led to the organisers of the series to adopt the "Showdown Rule" for 2010. This revised the points system to the split-season format popularly used by saloon-car series in the United States.
Superbike World Championship (2009–2020)
After winning the title, Camier was invited to join the Aprilia squad in the Superbike World Championship for the final two races of the season, replacing the injured Shinya Nakano.[7] His first meeting at Magny-Cours saw him qualify 16th improving to set the fourth fastest warm-up time. Unfortunately, two technical problems meant he took no points. However, in the last meeting of the season at Portimao, Camier finished 6th and 7th.
Camier raced full-time with Aprilia in World Superbike in 2010. He finished second to teammate Max Biaggi in race two at Miller Motorsport Park, giving Aprilia their first 1–2 in the series.[8] At his home round at Silverstone, Camier started 16th but fought back to finish sixth and third in the two races.[9]
For the 2020 season he was contracted to ride for Barni Ducati, but continuing shoulder injury problems prevented a start the season and he parted ways with Barni.[3]
