Karl Harris

Karl Harris (born on October 21, 1979 in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England) is a professional motorcycle road racer. In 2008, he races in the British Superbike championship for Rob McElnea's Yamaha team. This is his fifth season in the class, and he is yet to win a race there. He is married to Jane, and they have no children as yet.

He started his career in 1996, moving through the junior ranks to race in the European Superstock Championship, winning the title on the Suzuki GSX-R750, as well as taking in some rounds of World Supersport in 1999, with a best result of 4th. He returned to the UK in 2001, racing a Suzuki in the British Supersport Championship, which he won. He then graduated to Superbikes in 2002 on a Suzuki, but this was not a successful season. In 2003 and 2004, he again raced in Supersport for HM Plant Honda, winning the title in both years. For 2005 he returned to Superbikes with a Honda run from their UK factory in Swindon, finishing 9th overall with a best result of 3rd.

He moved to the main HRC Honda team alongside Ryuichi Kiyonari for 2006, taking a 2nd place at Oulton Park, less than 0.1 seconds behind race winner Gregorio Lavilla. A crash in the first race at Snetterton caused him to miss the second, although he was not seriously injured. He took his first pole position at Oulton Park that year. He came close to his first series win in the second race at Croft in the wet, passed by Leon Haslam with half a lap to go. While Kiyonari won the title, Harris finished fifth overall, behind the semi-works bike of Jonathan Rea, who replaced him in the factory team for 2007.

He switched to the Hydrex Honda team for that year. His best result in the first half of the season was a 6th place, but again he showed good pace at Oulton Park. He scored an emotional second place in the second round at Oulton Park in August. [http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/sport/sportresults/mcn/2007/july/jul9-jul15/july1307oultonparkbritishsuperbikeskarlharrisgoesfastest/]

For 2008 he moved to Rob Mac Racing, riding a factory Yamaha. He crashed in the first round after being struck by Tom Sykes' fallen Rizla Suzuki, leading him to remark that he felt like he'd be hit by Joe Calzaghe [http://www.bikesportnews.com/articles/article.html?id=KARL_HARRIS_I_FEEL_LIKE_IVE_BEEN_IN_WITH_JOE_CALZAGHE_1] . He didn't finish any of the first six races of the year [http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/motorsport/article1201131.ece] , leading him to largely give up on the season [http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/sport/sportresults/mcn/2008/july/14-20/jul1808-bsb-karl-harris-enjoy-himself/?R=EPI-101826] . He made a one-off appearance on a works Yamaha in the World Supersport champonship at Brands Hatch [http://londonbikers.com/news/9333/karl-harris-replaces-fabien-foret-in-wss-at-brands] , crashing out of 5th place.