Ellison denies WSS switch

Source: Insidebikes | Carole Nash - Wednesday, 18th November 2009, 14:41 GMT

Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} James Ellison has confirmed that he remains committed to the British Superbike Championship, despite accepting an invitation to test for the Yamaha World Supersport team in Portimao. Ellison, who was in Portugal to support former AMA rival Ben Spies, was offered the opportunity to test the Yamaha R6 left vacant by Cal Crutchlow’s switch to World Superbikes and clocked times which, whilst not officially released, were described as “competitive with the top five race times”. But Ellison has dismissed suggestions that the test is an indication that he is to leave British Superbikes, with Yamaha still yet to confirm a WSS rider for 2010. “At the moment my plan is to stay with GSE Racing in BSB next season as I have a two year contract with the team, but we are waiting on a title sponsor,” he told the BSB website. “I have done my first year with GSE and finished second so for 2010 the aim is to come back with them and have a real stab at the title.” Ellison, who came second in the BSB championship to teammate Leon Camier, did however relish the opportunity to ride the World Championship winning bike. “It was awesome and a great opportunity for me to test Cal’s bike today,” added. “I had about an hour on track and in that time I was able to run the pace that the top five had at the weekend on race distance tyres without making any changes to Cal’s settings. “The last time I rode a Supersport bike was in 2002 and it has changed since then, it has loads more power now and you can wrestle it around and be more physical than you can on the Superbike. It is much lighter and reacts more to the movement and you have to keep it revving all the time, but it has some mega electronics and a great chassis. It was just a fantastic package. “I had gone to Portugal to watch the racing and see Ben (Spies); we raced together in AMA and we are good mates so I wanted to go and see him finish the job and catch up with a few people. I spoke to Laurens Klein Koerkamp who is the Yamaha Motor Europe Racing Manager over the weekend, as I knew him from before, and team manager Wilco Zeelenberg to see if I could have a test on the Supersport bike. “They had planned to test a couple of riders and I didn’t find out for definite until the end of the weekend, so I called and checked it was OK with Colin [Wright], GSE Racing team manager] and that is how it all happened. I borrowed Cal’s kit - his leathers, gloves and boots as he is the same size as me; it gave the photographers something to look out for as we were almost identical!” Read article

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