Chris Walker (motorcycle racer)
Chris Walker, known as The Stalker, is a much loved British motorcycle racer from Nottingham. In 2006 he races in World Superbike for the PSG Kawasaki team, having previously also raced in British Superbike and 500cc World Championship.
Like Formula One legend Ayrton Senna, Chris has Bell's Palsy, which has paralysed part of his face. He lists his determination as his best feature, and his love of puddings as his worst.
British racing
He only started circuit racing in 1995 after many years as an accomplished motocross rider but by the end of that year and into 1996 he rose through the ranks with ease and had ridden in GP's and scored points. In 1997 he was challenging for the prestigious British Superbike championship, coming agonisingly close in 2000, when an engine failure in his Suzuki took him out of a winning position with just 3 laps remaining of the final race at Donnington Park, leaving Chris in tears. He did however take a 2nd place at Brands Hatch in World Superbike that year.
International racing
Walker made an attempt at the 500cc World Championship in 2001. He predicted that "For me it's going to be the toughest year ever", which proved accurate, as the factory Shell-sponsored Honda that was hard to ride and forced Chris to over ride, resulting in many huge crashes. So for 2002 Chris went to the World Superbike series, initially with the Fuchs Kawasaki team.
He was 6th in the championship for GSE Ducati in 2003, and 11th for Carl Fogarty's Foggy Petronas team in 2004, respectively teamed with James Toseland and Troy Corser (both of whom won the title the next season, Tosland riding the 2004 Fila Ducati to success and Corser the Alstare Suzuki in 2005).
In 2005 he joined the PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse team, proving to be the most consistent Kawasaki rider in terms of pace and results, securing one podium finish (3rd place, round 6 at Valencia) and finishing 7th place overall. 2006 sees Chris teamed up with Frenchman Régis Laconi and Spain's Fonsi Nieto on a Kawasaki Europe backed ZX10R for PSG.
Chris secured his maiden WSB race win on the 3rd September 2006 in Race 1 at Assen, Netherlands in his 131st race. Starting the race in 13th position, and dropping to 26th position at the first corner following an excurison onto the grass, Chris braved the torrential rain and a high rate of attrition to win in a time of 44 minutes, 23.501 seconds.