Bumper entry grid set for 2005.

Next season could see the biggest entry of British Superbike contenders with eleven teams possibly taking to the track.

This season saw nine teams regularly competing in the premier British Championship, but next season could see up to eleven teams enter as a number of teams who have competed in the support races are planning to make the jump into the top class.

The three teams in particular making the move are 125's Nvidia, Superstock's Vivaldi and British Supersport's MSS Discovery, with the latter the only team to have confirmed their rider, Julian Da Costa, for next season.

However, many of the teams are choosing to take to the Kawasaki ZX-10R for next season, meaning nearly half the field could be made up of the green machine.

Hawk and MSS Discovery will as usual use the Kawasaki, but teams such as Sendo, Vivaldi and ETI are all rumoured to be taking delivery of the ZX.

Hawk debuted the all new Kawasaki 1000cc last season, taking quite a great deal of success, in the hands of Scott Smart winning three races, for a bike in its development year.

This will bode well for teams in 2005 who will be using the bike.

Rizla Suzuki, like Hawk this season, will have an all new GSX-R1000 next season, could this mean there may be a delay whilst the bike is brought up to speed?

One man who has had a great deal of experience in developing bikes is Rizla's new signing Scott Smart. At his previous team, Hawk Kawasaki, Scott played a significant role in developing the engine and fuel injection on the all new ZX-10R. He believes that Rizla will be capable of turning the bike into a race winner quickly.

"The Suzuki's we will have next season are an all new bike, so there will be lots of development work to do which I like," commented Smart. "The Rizla team are possibly the most competent in the paddock at developing road bikes into race bikes."

Last season also saw the first year of the all new Honda CBR1000 FireBlade and Yamaha YZF R1.

The speed of the Blade on the Blade was never in doubt, although some gremlins robbed Michael Rutter of higher placed finishes during the season.

The Honda factories involvement in the series next season is in question with their line-up to be announced at the NEC show in early November, however the Blades they developed this season are likely to be a formidable force in both BSB and WSBK next year.

The R1 did not fair as well in its debut year despite the Virgin Yamaha's efforts to flood the grid with its four Red machines.

Next year may be a different story for Yamaha as they are keen to win in every major championship in their 50th anniversary year.

Quite how keen was demonstrated at the final round of World Superbikes from France. The Yamaha France R1, piloted by World Endurance rider Sebastien Gimbert, forced its way to fourth on the grid followed by two fourth placed finishes in the races. An impressive feat by both rider and machine first time out.

The Ducati of Sean Emmett and Monstermob was a factory F04 machine, but due to the influx of the more powerful four cylinder machines this season, the Ducati was almost left floundering. Emmett reportedly had many troubles in setting up the bike to get it to handle on the Dunlop tyres. In a recent test with his new team Virgin Yamaha Emmett said, "...with the 999 I rode last season, no matter what we tried there was no solution."

Next season sees the confirmed return of GSE with a two bike Ducati team. GSE have had great success in both WSBK and BSB in the past and therefore will hope to put the V-twin back into regular podium positions next season.

There is no doubt 2005 will see the closest battle for the championship yet, with a bumper entry of teams and riders, all in with a chance of that race win.