CHASING THE CHAMPIONSHIP

Chasing the Championship tells the story of the infectiously popular Geordie podcast host, maths teacher and racer, Chrissy Rouse, focussing on his efforts in 2020 to become the Pirelli National Superstock 1000 champion at BSB. It was filmed amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic, in what was a unique season with particular challenges for Chrissy and his team, for me filming, and for the sport and associated sponsors.

I got to know Chrissy in 2020, part way through his season. I knew he had a chance at the title and at a pivotal round of the championship I went along to meet him film the weekend. The project grew to include interviews all around the UK, with some of his early mentors to the surgeons who had patched him up in the off season and those closest to him.

This was my first feature documentary. We premiered it at Everyman Cinema in Barnet in the July of 2021 and it went on to be screened at a handful of festivals around the world, before now being available on Amazon Prime. It won the “People’s Choice” award at the Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival, which is a nice honour as I see it as an authentic prize, chosen voluntarily by viewers and not a submission from myself. Chrissy and I travelled to France in 2022 to see it at a festival in Nice, where we met French MotoGP rider (and double Moto2 World Champion) Johann Zarco.

After the film launch, I continued doing some smaller projects with Chrissy at some of his race weekends. After a tough year in 2021, he stepped up to the Superbike class in 2022, which had always been his aim and his dream. He made it happen through his dedication and unwavering belief in himself and those around him, and in many ways it was similar to his 2020 season. He was there as an independent rider and scored points throughout the year, beating much bigger and better funded teams.

In the penultimate round of this 2022 season, while racing at Donington Park, Chrissy was involved in an incident on track and he tragically passed away a few days later. In addition to the huge loss felt by his family, team and friends, he has left a hole in the sport and in thousands of peoples’ lives ever since.

The film took on a new significance following Chrissy’s death, and I hope it can continue to tell his story to new audiences and to inspire people to pursue what is important to them; his wonderful character comes through and you will finish the film feeling like you knew him. He is forever in our thoughts.