A unique tribute to one of Scotland’s most revered motorbike riders will take place at the Knockhill circuit in Fife in just over a week’s time.
Round four of the hotly-contested British Superbike Championship will take place at Knockhill on the weekend of June 14 to 16, but the hosts have also decided to use the occasion mark the 10th anniversary of the passing of Steve Hislop, an 11-time TT winner and triple British champion.
The Hawick star, who was killed in a helicopter crash in 2003, always received a warm welcome on home turf and managed a couple of victories at the Fife circuit, prompting organisers of next week’s racing to christen the event the Steve Hislop Knockhill Round of the championships.
Hislop’s achievements are to be honoured by two other Scots, Niall Mackenzie and Stuart Easton, who will be central to the celebrations in a special lap on race day.
Mackenzie had Hislop as his team-mate and title rival during the 1998 season, the year in which he completed a hat-trick of British Superbike championships, and he will be taking to the track aboard one of the Yamahas they raced back then as Hislop took third place in the overall rankings.
Team-mate to him at the time, Easton will be riding a replica of the 2002 season Ducati which took Hislop to eight victories and his second crown after the first one back in 1995 had also been achieved riding a Ducati.
James Whitham, another team-mate of Mackenzie in that title-winning era as well as one of Hizzy’s great friends and rivals, and who is now a television commentator, will also take to the track on a Yamaha.
The three bikes, together with the actual championship-winning Ducati, owned and kindly loaned by Hislop’s former team boss Paul Bird, will be displayed, while courtesy of the Hizzy Museum there will be a selection of leathers, helmets, photos and other memorabilia on show in the tribute room.
On track, the riders battling for victories in the British Superbike Championship races will also be chasing an additional piece of silverware as “The Flying Haggis” Trophy, inaugurated in 2004 by Hislop’s mother Margaret, will be presented to the rider setting the fastest lap out of the two races.