Former British Superbike Champion Leon Camier will race for Crescent Suzuki in World Superbikes next season after signing a one-year deal for the Bournemouth-based outfit. The ex-factory Aprilia man is the first rider to sign for Jack Valentine's squad which is making the switch to WSB after many years in BSB.

Camier has spent the last two years alongside Max Biaggi and, after a fairly torrid time, is looking forward to being back with members of his crew from 2008 and 2009 in the shape of race engineer Frankie Carchedi and technician Pete Bancewicz who spent 2011 with Eugene Laverty at Yamaha.

"I'm really looking forward to it. I don't know yet when I will ride the bike but we are hoping it might be at the end of this month. It's my first time on a Suzuki and the team's first year in World Superbikes but I'm confident we can work well together," said Camier, speaking to bikesportnews.com this evening.

"It will also be good to have some of my 2009 team back with me. That will inspire some confidence as well as we know how we work. All in all I'm really happy with it and am looking forward to getting started. I'm really looking forward to the new season and I believe that the Suzuki GSX-R is certainly a very capable bike, especially with the technical plan the guys have in place. This is a fantastic chance for me to take the next step in my career and I'm very thankful to the guys at Crescent for giving me the opportunity."