James Ellison (motorcycle racer)

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For other persons named James Ellison, see James Ellison (disambiguation).

James Ellison at the 2005 British motorcycle Grand Prix

James Ellison (born 19 September 1980 in Lancaster) is an English motorcycle racer. He has won the Cup Class of the British Superbike Championship, and was the only British rider in the premier class of the 2006 MotoGP season. For 2008 he rides for the Hydrex Bike Animal team in the BSB. His brother Dean is also a motorcycle racer.

James Ellison started racing motorcycles at the age of 15, riding 80 cc machines. After racing in junior championships such as Superteen, he entered the European Superstock series in 1999, winning the title in 2000 and 2001. In 2002, he raced in the Supersport World Championship, before winning the Endurance World Championship in 2003.

For 2004, Ellison switched to the British Superbike Championship. He rode a Yamaha YZF-R1 for the privateer Jentin team. He finished 11th overall, and won the privateer cup for independent riders. As well as the British Superbike Championship season, he received two wild-card entries in the Superbike World Championship, at Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Notably, Ellison finished fifth in the second of two races at Brands Hatch.

Towards the end of 2004, Ellison was asked to race for the WCM MotoGP team after their regular rider, Chris Burns, was injured. He finished 13th at Qatar, and the team signed him for the full 2005 season. In 2005, he scored seven points whilst riding an underpowered bike^[1], but impressed with his attitude and ability^[1].

For 2006 he switched to the Tech 3 Yamaha team. At Philip Island he made history as the first rider to switch bikes mid-race, onto a bike with wet weather tyres. He later finished 16th and out of the points-scoring positions. He said that he was "disappointed" with the balance of the Yamaha M1 bike^[2], and that his bike was inferior to the versions that the three other Yamaha riders had been riding^[3].

Ellison's contract with Tech 3 Yamaha was not renewed for the 2007 season^[4]. He raced in AMA Superbike in the United States for the Corona Honda team in 2007. He had a best finish of 5th at the wet Daytona circuit, in what was a difficult season in the AMA^[5]. On the plus side, he did meet a Texan girlfriend at a birthday party thrown by rival Ben Spies. Ellison returned to British Superbikes for 2008, with the Hydrex Bike Animal team^[6] He finished the first round with a pair of 7th places, a great ride considering the problems in qualifying. He took his first ever BSB podium in race 2 of round 2 at Oulton Park^[7]. At Donington Park he qualified 2nd but did not convert this into a podium finish in either race.