Cycle News Staff | January 24, 2011
Yamaha will return to the World Supersport Championship this year with the ParkinGO Team of Chaz Davies and Italian Luca Scassa set to ride the 2009 Yamaha R6s that Cal Crutchlow rode to the World Championship that year.
Last year the ParkinGO team used Triumphs with Davies riding one of the British bikes to fourth in the World Supersport Championship. The team will now be known as Yamaha ParkinGo.
Yamaha Motor Europe will provide the freshened-up 2009 R6s to the team – the same R6s that Crutchlow (pictured) rode to five race wins and 10 podiums en route to taking the 2009 World Championship. Despite the team’s success, Yamaha Motor Europe elected to pull the team from the series at the end of the 2009 season.
In addition to providing the bikes, Yamaha’s technical staff will also lend behind-the-scenes support on an ongoing basis throughout the season while the team itself will take responsibility for organization, rider selection and race entry. The Yamaha ParkinGO Team will continue partnerships with some of its own technical partners, although Yamaha Motor Europe will also support negotiations with its former technical partners and the team for the season ahead, according to Yamaha.
Davis will lead the team and will be joined by Scassa, the Italian replacing David Salom, who ended up fifth in last year’s title chase.
Team owner Giuliano Rovelli, Chief Executive Officer of Oasi S.r.l. Servizi Aeroportuali, was a rider himself in the early nineties and is involved in a number of activities including the ParkinGO Company, the first network of airport parking facilities in Italy.
“This is a great opportunity for officially supported R6 machinery to return to the World Supersport Championship,” said Yamaha Motor Europe Racing Manager Laurens Klein Koerkamp. “The R6 is a winning machine which, after taking the World Supersport Championship in 2009, has continued in 2010 with many national titles alongside the European Superstock 600 Championship title, despite not competing at world level. It is our belief and our vision that in today’s circumstances supporting a private team with the materials needed to compete is the appropriate involvement in World Supersport for a manufacturer.
“I have known Giuliano[Rovelli, the team owner] for a few years now; in the past we could not find the possibility to do something together. The respect for each other has continued however and when the opportunity became available we were able to come to an agreement within a very short time. It is definitely a challenge to start at this late stage with the preparations, but the team and riders are professional and they will have full access to our information database for setup to progress quickly into the season. We consider the test in Portimao this week mainly as a shakedown for both bike and riders.”
“We managed to reach a mutually satisfying agreement with Yamaha Motor Europe in just 10 days time,” said Rovelli, Yamaha ParkinGO Team owner. “Having the opportunity to work with a manufacturer that has racing in its philosophy makes a big difference. I shared this important decision with the whole team. Chaz Davies and Luca Scassa are professional riders and are looking forward to having the chance to win the World Supersport Championship with a very competitive Yamaha R6.”
