James Ellison has penned a deal with Parkalgar Honda team and will contest in the 2011 World Supersport Championship in a new formed satellite team called PTR Parkalgar Honda.

Ellison is only thirty, but is a two times European Superstock Champion, World Endurance Champion a former MotoGP rider (Harris WCM, Blata, Yamaha Tech3) and has been racing in the British Superbikes championship after doing a stint in the AMA.

“I am very excited to be racing for PTR Parkalgar Honda in the World Supersport Championship, it is a proven race winning team that will give me the bike and opportunity to show what I am capable of. These sort of chances don’t come along everyday and after riding the PTR Parkalgar Honda bike a couple of times I know how fast it really is and that I should be able to compete for wins and the Championship. That is my aim, and the team’s so we share the same ambition. I am looking forward to working with Sam and Miguel, with my experience I hope to be able to help them both realise their full potential. I am determined to show the world what James Ellison is capable of and this is the best opportunity I could wish for, I can’t wait for the season to start.”

PTR Parkalgar Honda Team Manager Simon Buckmaster has also anticipated that he could run a World Superbike team in 2012 depending on Ellison’s results and funding.

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It didn’t take Broc Parkes very long to find another ride to finish the season after leaving Echo CRS world superbike team. The Australian will be replacing the very heavily injured Joan Lascorz in the Kawasaki Provec Motocard WSS squad for the final three rounds of the World Supersport championship

Parkes is a six year veteran of the series with five wins and was two times runner-up in 2004 and 2007, and last week tested a Kawasaki ZX-6R at Almeria to get re-accustomed with the bike and here’s what he had to say after the test:

“I rode the bike recently at Almeria and despite the really hot track temperatures we got a lot of good work done and I had a chance to get used to riding the Ninja ZX-6R. I’m really excited about this opportunity to have a team of that calibre give me a chance to ride at the front again. I had a pole and a podium in Germany in 2008, but it is hard to predict how things will be until I get back on the track with the rest of the Supersport guys. I have ridden for most of my career in Europe in Supersport and because of that I have competed against most of the guys who are still racing at the front.”

If you’re wondering how Lascorz is after the horrific crash at Silverstone, we can tell you that he was transfered from the Coventry hospital and taken to the Clinica Universitaria Dexeus in Barcelona, Spain which was made possible by the Catalan RACC Federation.

Continue reading: WSS: Broc Parkes to sub for Joan Lascorz

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On the classic Australian circuit of Phillip Island where the official Infront tests took place last weekend before the season opener, one of the newest additions to the World Supersport grid is Paola Cazzola, who rides the #33 Honda for Kuja Racing.

Dave Contini got a chance to talk to Paola and asked her a few questions about her newest racing adventure.

Q: You’re one of the fastest women riders on the planet, you’ve shown that you deserve to ride and compete at an international level. How was the first impact with testing at Phillip Island?

A: Firstly, I’d like to thank you for the compliments, I want to say that I know a lot of riders who deserve to ride at world level, but in our field as everyone knows, money talks and maybe being the first women to take part full season in the series has helped me.

My first impression was that for the first three laps at Phillip Island I seemed to be inside a video game, the track is very fast, with turns that you do in full fourth and fifth gear that make you hold your breath! The track is much tighter than I expected and at certain speeds if you miss your marks even by a little …it’s not pretty!

Continue reading: WSS: Interview with Paola Cazzola

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Back in November we reported that Paola Cazzola was in talks for a ride in World Supersport Championship.

Well this lucky young lady has gotten her wish because she will be the first female rider ever to contest an entire season and she’ll be doing it with Kuja Racing on a Honda CBR 600RR.

Paola’s team mate will be Danilo Dell’Omo who raced for Kuja Racing last year finishing 19th in the final standings.

The team will be officially presented on Saturday the 16th at the Motor Bike Expo in Verona and then will head to Portimao for the official Supersport tests.

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Stiggy Honda Racing run by Johan Stigefelt has shut down and has withdrawn from the Superbike and Supersport World Championships in 2010.

The decision was taken after five years of partecipation at world level due to the economic situation and pull out from their financial partners S2 Racing at the begining of October and the team’s inablity, despite often beating the larger and more ‘noble’ Ten Kate Honda, to find other financial backers that would allow them to continue competing.

The 2009 season saw the team start with Leon Haslam and Roby Rolfo in WSBK and Anthony West and Gianluca Vizziello in WSS. When Stiggy axed Roberto Rolfo, for John Hopkins, that was first sign that the team was suffering from cash problems and trying to get an influx of cash from the Monster backed American, who infortunately spent most of the season sidelined with injuries. The team continued to suffer and tried cutting expenses by first droppping Vizziello for the last three races and then pulling West from the final race in Portimao.

Full press release after the jump.

Continue reading: WSBK – Stiggy Honda Racing shuts down due to economic woes

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Since this is going to be the last post of the day, we thought that it would be fitting to remember late World Supersport rider Craig Jones with this video tribute.

Jones died from head injuries after a crash in last year’s WSP race at Brands Hatch.

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The Provec Motocard.com Kawasaki Team will be the new 2009 officially supported World Supersport Team. Riders for 2009 will be six time WSS race winner Katsuaki Fujiwara and newcomer Joan Lascorz.

The team will be strongly supported by Kawasaki and will race with the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R with showa suspension. Former WSS race winner Pere Riba will be test rider and advisor for the team.

Steve Guttridge, Kawasaki’s European Race Planning Manager, said of the new collaboration, “It’s an exciting opportunity to put our new Ninja ZX6-R back onto the podium next year. The team is set to work to a strict testing schedule with Fujiwara using the results of Pere’s production based testing in association with Showa as an important starting point for the new Provec Racing team. I’m sure that thanks to these new initiatives we will see better results for Kawasaki next season, especially with the new potential from Joan Lascorz in the fiercely competitive WSS category.”

Source | kawasaki

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Team Stiggy Honda has signed Italian rider Gianluca Vizziello to ride alongside Anthony West to complete their Supersport Championship line-up for 2009. The 28-year-old Italian has a long racing history in the Supersport class and has ridden several seasons in the Superstock 1000cc class, winning several race in 2004, and has also raced in WSBK in 2005.

“I must say that I feel like the happiest person in the world right now!” said Gianluca. “Straight after signing the contract with Stiggy the other day, I didn’t really show my enthusiasm but now, when everything has sunk in, I have been celebrating for three days!”

“The WSS championship is tough and highly competitive, but for next year I know that I will have one of the best and fastest bikes in the championship. I will work and fight hard to finish on the podium in every race. My goal for next year is to try to finish in the top five,” he declared.

Continue reading: Gianluca Vizziello to Stiggy Honda

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