Charlie Nesbitt

Our last chat with SHARK Helmets’ 2023 crop of British riders is with Swindonborn Hawk Honda man Charlie Nesbitt.

He’s only 22 but has been riding for 20 years already, and came up through the race ranks via a now-familiar route. Kicking off on minimoto racing soon after he could walk, he went on to Metrakit racing before moving to Spain from his home town of Swindon for a season in the Spanish series, aged just 11.

That Spanish sojourn seems like a common theme – was it an essential step for Charlie? “Yes, it was the next level for my age. I wasn’t old enough to go to 600s and at the time my dream was to go to a world championship, and that was the only way of getting into a championship: go to Spain, get a few good results, and then hopefully look to get picked up by a Grand Prix team. Unfortunately, that never happened, but it is what it is.

“Dad and Mum and everyone put everything into it. They sold their house to put me through the Spanish championship – they literally went all in.”

Perhaps surprisingly, that commitment came from a family who hadn’t raced bikes themselves. “No, my dad always rode bikes on the road, he never raced or anything like that. He only started to race minimoto when me and my brother were racing – he just wanted to be involved. My sister got a bike too, so we were all into minimoto!”

No MotoGP call-up for Charlie, then... yet. But he’s worked his way to the top of British bike racing after coming back to compete in Superteens and the BSB Moto3 class, where he took his first UK title in 2016, aged 15. A couple of seasons abroad in the Junior World Championship followed in 2017 and 2018, before returning to the UK in the GP2 series until 2021, when he won the championship. Charlie moved to Hawk Racing in 2022 onboard the Suzuki GSX-R1000 in British Superstock, before finally moving up to a BSB ride on a Hawk Honda Fireblade.