Karl Harris dies in a crash at the 2014 Isle of Man TT

By Dan Moakes
June 9 2014

Sadly, another British Superbike regular, Karl Harris, has died in a road racing crash - this time on the Isle of Man at the 2014 Tourist Trophy races. 34-year-old Karl, from Yorkshire, was competing in the Superstock TT on Tuesday, 3rd of June, when the accident happened.

Karl Harris had been on the British Superbike scene for over a decade, and in his best seasons scored twelve podium results, although without a race win. Racing for HRC, he was fifth overall in 2006; but his most successful British Championship years saw him win the 600cc Supersport title on three occasions. His Superstock pedigree had seen him win the European title in 1999.

Karl Harris 2006 - photo by Raceline Photography
Karl Harris, HM Plant Honda, CBR1000RR © Raceline Photography

Karl’s racing career began in the Superteen championship category in 1995, competing with 125cc Aprilia machinery for three seasons, with backing from the likes of Ron Haslam and Team Great Britain. In 1996 he won the season-opening and season-closing races, both at Donington Park, and was fourth overall in the series that year. By the end of 1997, he had made his first appearance in the British Supersport class.

Karl became a Supersport regular in 1998, joining CABB Racing with Honda Repsol and making his first podium appearance with second place at Oulton Park. The demanding track at Oulton would be a successful proving ground throughout his career. In 1999 he raced a Suzuki for GR Motorsport, with his best British Supersport result being third at Oulton; and in World Supersport he finished the season with fourth at Hockenheim. The same year saw him top of the pile in European Superstock, with wins on the Suzuki GSX-R750 at Assen and Hockenheim.

In 2000, Karl graduated to a full-time World Supersport ride with Team Metalsistem Endoug Suzuki, but it was a difficult season and he could only manage a best result of ninth. So the following year he returned to the British Supersport championship with Crescent Suzuki Racing, and there he took six wins from the last eight rounds on his way to the title. In World Supersport outings on the GSX-R600 he scored in both the rounds at home in the UK.

Karl had made his first British Superbike appearances in 2000, scoring 12th and 9th at Brands Hatch on a Suzuki. The reward for his efforts in 2001 was promotion to Crescent Suzuki’s Rizla-backed Superbike team, under new rules with a 1000cc limit for the four-cylinder bikes. Karl showed promising form at several venues, but injury sustained in an incident at Oulton led to him missing several rounds. His best finishes were fifth and fourth at the second Oulton Park meeting, and he was twelfth in the final table.

Following on from that experience, Karl returned to the Supersport class in 2003, competing with a CBR600RR for Honda Racing. He started the season with first- or second-placed finishes in each of the first seven rounds, going on take the crown with a total of six victories. There was more of the same in 2004, with the Honda now backed by HM Plant, as Karl claimed another six races and took his overall podium tally for the class to 32, with fastest laps up to nine. His total of 18 wins in the series was the most of any rider until the recent introduction of double-headers, which has allowed Stuart Easton to move ahead. The prize for his latest title was a return to BSB with Honda in 2005.

Karl would race for www.honda-racing.co.uk, a satellite of the Honda UK team that, with backing from HRC, was running as HM Plant Honda with Michelin tyres. It wasn’t too long before Karl’s Dunlop-shod CBR1000RR FireBlade reached the podium, which he did with third place twice at Oulton. Overall there were twelve top-six results, and a best qualifying result of third, with Karl taking seventh place in the final table.

For 2006, Karl was elevated to the factory HM Plant Honda team in place of Michael Rutter, alongside champion in waiting Ryuichi Kiyonari. He started the season with four front-row grid positions, and in the first race of the year was second behind Gregorio Lavilla, after Leon Haslam between them crashed out. Race two at Oulton saw Harris challenging Lavilla for victory on the final lap; he took pole and another second at the next Oulton meeting; and another close call for victory came in the wet at Croft, where race two saw him build a useful lead until Haslam closed in and got by with just a couple of corners to go. With six podiums compared to eleven-time winner Kiyo, Karl was a slightly disappointing fifth overall.

2007 saw Karl moved back onto a customer Honda in the Hydrex team, but this time there was only one top-five finish, as he took another second place at Oulton. For 2008 he switched to Rob McElnea’s unsponsored Team Yamaha machine, with which he suffered both bad luck and injury. However, he did manage a best result of third place at Knockhill, but elsewhere there were several no-scores. In 2009 Karl started well after a return to Hydrex Honda, taking second in both races at Oulton. But with results after that disappointing, he was ultimately replaced by Tommy Hill, and had to move to Node 4 Yamaha and then Sorrymate.com SMT Honda.

Karl’s BSB appearances were less frequent after that, with rides for East Coast Racing with a Yamaha (2010), Splitlath Motorsport with an Aprilia (2011), and the Quattro Plant Kawasaki Superbike Team (2012), without scoring any top-six finishes - although he did qualify fifth at Cadwell Park on the latter machine. He had made occasional Supersport appearances in the same period. In 2013 he joined PR Racing Kawasaki, where again seventh place was his best result; but recently he had branched out into road racing, unfortunately with tragic results at this year’s TT.

This site offers condolences to Karl’s family, friends and supporters. He was a fast and determined rider and will be missed by his fellow racers and by followers of the sport.