HAMPSHIRE riders will make a three-pronged attack for title honours in next year's British Superbike Champion-ship.

Fran Williamson, Jamie Morley and John Crockford have landed team slots for next season - and all three will be at the forefront of the battle for the privateers' Championship.

Williamson, who lives at Petersfield and works in Hamble, climbs on board a powerful R7 Yamaha to spearhead the 3TILL3 team, who appropriately are running three riders in 2000.

Waterlooville-based Morley, who still walks with a limp after breaking 12 bones in his foot in a crash at Oulton Park last July, has signed to ride Ray Stringer's R7 Yamaha.

Stringer is one of the most successful privateers in the history of the Superbike Championship and sees Morley, just 23, as one of the brightest young prospects in the sport.

Morley and Crockford from Totton made a big impression in their first season in the British Supersport 600cc Championship and Crockford, in road racing for a relatively short time, looks like making it three Hampshire riders in the Superbikes as he finalises plans to join the GR Network Team.

It will enable former motocross rider Crockford to maintain his links with Suzuki. He rode a GSX-R in the British 600cc Championship in which he was top privateer three times but with the GR Network Team he will be armed with a far more potent new GSX-R750.

All three Hampshire riders have the courage and the skill to have a successful 2000 and hopefully banish the spectre of a grim year for local road racing in which two of Southampton's finest ever riders Gavin Lee and Dave Morris lost their lives in racing accidents.

Williamson worked with Lee at Aerostructures in Hamble and they became close friends. The man from Petersfield has been racing bikes since 1985 and in 1999 reached his peak, finishing fourth overall in the Aprilia 250 Challenge and featuring strongly in the British Sports Production Championship on a bigger version of the Italian twin.

3TILL3 - the name is derived from the famous Bol'Dor endurance event which begins at 3pm on Saturdays and ends at 3pm the following day - is run by Midlands garage owner Jim Wilson and Williamson's teammates will be Roger Smith, who was in the team last season, and Mark Quigley, a rapid young graduate from the SuperSport ranks.

According to Williamson's sponsor Martin Spiers: "Jim's gone for Francis because of his experience, his ability as a rider and his knowledge of setting up the bikes. He sees him as a big asset to the team."

Spiers anticipates the three Hampshire riders will be challenging strongly for privateer honours and he predicts: "They'll ruffle a few feathers among the works boys as well."

Morley, a former BMX British champion, showed electrifying form in the early part of last season, winning a National Shoot-Out to qualify for the British Championship and winning two rounds of the British 600 Production Championship.

His accident during a warm-up session for the championship event at Oulton Park was a pure freak caused by a hole in his boot. But it left him with a shattered foot which paid havoc with his day job. He works as a roofer in Hayling Island.

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