After weeks of speculation Yamaha has made it official. Ben Spies will be moving to MotoGP next year, and James Toseland will be heading back to World Superbike. Spies will be riding alongside fellow American Colin Edwards on the Tech 3 team, and Toseland will be riding on the Yamaha WSBK factory team. The following is taken from Yamaha press releases:Yamaha Motor Company herewith confirms that Ben Spies will be moving to the MotoGP Championship in 2010 to join the Tech 3 Yamaha Team. The Texan recently signed a two-year deal with Yamaha, which originally planned for him to remain in World Superbike for one more year before moving to MotoGP in 2011, but Spies and Yamaha together have decided to advance the move by one year.
Ben Spies:
“I want to thank Yamaha globally for their faith in me. They have treated me like royalty! Yamaha just recently allowed me to rethink my contract for 2010-2011. I did sign for WSB for 2010 but after Indy I began thinking of the competition and my age versus waiting until 2011. This was not an easy decision, the Yamaha World Superbike Team crew and especially Massimo Meregalli have been fantastic and it’s been great fun to put in a season together. I am hoping that I can give Maio, Laurens Klein Koerkamp and everyone else a championship to remember this year with me. Herve Poncharal at Tech 3 is showing his support by allowing me to come on board with my Crew Chief Tom Houseworth and Gregory Wood, my mechanic, who have both been with me since AMA days. We will have learning curves to overcome next year but I am up for the new goal. I hope to have a good year and my goal is to try and stay in the top 6-8 which, given the talented line up, will be a tall order.”
Yamaha's World Superbike team will feature James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow who replaces Tom Sykes.
James Toseland:
“I’m looking forward to return to World Superbikes. I want to show I’m still the rider that can win world titles. Of course there is some disappointment at losing my opportunity in MotoGP as I believe the challenge was still achievable, but the R1 has proven to be beyond the strongest bikes in Superbike and I know many of the Yamaha World Superbike Team guys, so I’m going to pick up where I left off and give 100% to achieving good results with the team. Within Superbike there were a few options available to me, however the way Yamaha have treated me since I joined them has been outstanding.”
