Easton fired-up for Knockhill 13 | 06 | 2013

THE BRITISH SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP makes its annual pilgrimage to Knockhill this weekend, but the battle for the title will be dominated by the memory of Steve Hislop.

It's 10 years since the Hawick racer, a double BSB champ and 11-time winner of the Isle of Man TT, was killed in a helicopter crash close to his Borders home.

This weekend's meeting at Knockhill will pay homage to 'Hizzy', with a series of events remembering the superfast racer.

Central to the tributes will be Doune's Niall Mackenzie, three-times BSB champ and one of Hislop's greatest friends and rival, plus Hizzy's protege, Stuart Easton.

It will also be the first time Easton, currently just one point off the lead in the British Supersport 600 Championship, has raced in Scotland since his horror crash in Ireland in 2011.

Contesting the North West 200 race on the roads of Northern Ireland, Easton crashed at high speed breaking both legs, shattering his pelvis and sustaining internal injuries.

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On Sunday, Mackenzie will take to the track aboard one of the Cadbury’s Boost Yamahas he and Hislop raced as team-mate in 1998.

Easton will ride a replica of the 2002 season MonsterMob Ducati which took Hislop to eight victories and his second crown after the first one back in 1995.

"It's going to be a pretty emotional weekend," Easton, the 29-year-old from Hawick, admitted today.

"Steve was a fantastic mentor to me in by early career, and there are things he taught me back then that I still do automatically every time I race.

"It's difficult to appreciate it's 10 years since Steve was killed, but I know his memory will definitely be at Knockhill this weekend."

In the BSB shoot-out, Honda's Alex Lowes has a one-point lead over the Kawasaki of Shane Byrne, with Suzuiki's Josh Brookes third, a further 20-points adrift.

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Jim McGill