LONDON -- The world of motorcycling paid tribute to British superbike champion Steve Hislop on Thursday after he died in a helicopter crash in Scotland.

The wreckage of the 41-year-old's helicopter was found by a local farmer on a hillside at Teviothead, close to Hawick, 30 miles south of Edinburgh, on Wednesday afternoon.

"Hizzy always sailed close to the wind when he was racing, so it's horrible he should lose his life in a crash like this," Carl Fogarty, four-times world superbike champion, told The Sun newspaper.

"Hizzy", as Hislop was known to his fans, started his career with a string of successes in the tough Isle of Man TT.

He then switched to track racing, winning the British superbike title in 1995 and again in 2002 with Ducati.

Hislop, a keen amateur helicopter pilot, had endured a miserable 2003 season after switching to Yamaha and they parted company a few weeks ago.

But he had just signed for the Ducati ETI team and was looking forward to getting back on his 2002 championship-winning Ducati at next weekend's Oulton Park round.

"Hislop is thought to have been flying home to visit friends when his helicopter came down at a remote farm near Teviothead near his home town of Hawick," Ducati said on its Web site.

"Steve was hugely popular with fans and rivals, and put a lot of time back into motorcycle racing, encouraging and helping young riders," added the Ducati report.

Scotland's Lothian and Borders police confirmed that a person was killed in a helicopter crash near Hawick but have not yet formally identified the body.

Hislop became a competition motorcyclist in 1979 after his brother Gary died racing at the Cumbrian circuit of Silloth.

He first rode in the Isle of Man TT in 1985, and within two years had won the Formula Two class.

Hislop took 10 more Isle of Man titles before clinching the British superbike title in 1995 in his first year of track racing, though he never featured in world superbike racing.

Fogarty added: "On his day he was as fast as anyone in the world. He always knew what he wanted with his setup and when it was right, he would just tear off into the distance."

Hislop had recently taken up helicopter flying, Rob McElnea, the Scot's former manager at Virgin Mobile Yamaha told the BBC.

"His new love was helicopters. He'd just passed his flying test and was qualified. All he ever talked about was getting in his helicopter and it was a real passion for him," McElnea said.