Haydon back at Virgin Yamaha

[Junior Senior]

James Haydon has turned out for his third factory team of 2005 with two test rides for Virgin Yamaha.

Haydon rode at Croft on Tuesday and again at Mallory today, the official line from the team is that Sean Emmett has undergone surgery on his troublesome elbow injury sustained at Brands Hatch earlier in the year and Haydon stepped in to help out.

Could this be terminal for Emmett??

[ATF]

If Virgin Yamaha want to progress and it looked like they could this year, they need to have more than 1 decent rider. Sorry but I don't think Hill and Wren have really set the world alight - they should stick them in a satellite team and run 2 strong factory riders and concentrate on them. Any thoughts on that?

[gomick]

plenty, it seems to me that yamaha uk aint getting the support as honda, ducati, kwaka & suzuki are getting.... why???

ps : they should have 2 guns riding

[N I Tram]

BAsed on WSBK the Yamaha isn't as good a bike as the Honda or Suzuki, and probably not the Ducati, so they're about where you'd expect them to be in BSB, notwithstanding Glen Richards being severely under-rated and working miracles for Hawk as in 2003. They promised the RX1 Cup winners a full factory ride, and have no funds to sety up a satellite team, so they really need to keep them on, otherwise they get made to look bad.

[chunder]

I think to be honest Virgin have suffered in two areas, firstly they are a pretty small team and dont have a huge budget as I understand it. Secondly and I think more importantly when you consider Hawk have a minimal budget too but have better esults, is that they are always swapping riders. Rob Mac should have held out more for Haydon again this year as I think the Yam was getting pretty good under James last year, he rode it better than anyone else did in that team. Plater was always either crashing or injured and Hill was a newcomer.
For this year, a new lead rider and even Hill coundt really be continuous coz the bike is totally different to ride with the new engine format I imagine. And as for Wren, well he seems completely at sea, he is nearly last every time and needs a bolt to sort himself out, Hill was never this bad!
Think this kind of thing always affects a team when they lose riders or change bikes as Birdy is finding out aswell.
Hawk are a superb example to these teams by trying to keep consistent and make gradual changes, as indeed Crescent did with JR.

[pink69]

Quite ironic Haydon ends up at Virgin again. He's been in and out of the team for the past few years. I hope Virin do sign him up because he's been the best rider on the Yamaha since the R1 came in and before on the 750 too. If he and Emmett can work together to develop the bike hopefully they can get up there and mix it with the Honda, Ducati and Suzuki's. The WSBK R1's are coming along ok, I watched Haga do a decent job on sunday hopefully Virgin can pick up their pace too. And I agree with the comment about Wren being out to sea, a works rider should be doing better!

[gomick]

they should have signed anthony gobert - i am serious too! but, they havent, so best of luck to james & his team-mates

[racer69]

Gobert has raced for Virgin Yamaha before, and didn't do alot.........

[Hazza]

Yeah, but he was replacing Hizzy, who didn't do alot on the bike either. And if thoose 2 arn't winning races then you know the bike is probably not the best.

[gomick]

probably wouldnt do a lot now either as he has no knowledge of the tracks bar the 2 or 3 rounds he did a cuppla years ago....

[deebrief]

Got to agree with others, poor Wren is having a very difficult time and maybe a junior team for 2006 would be a better idea.
However as the basic trainee superbike rider you have the great chance to learn from the more experienced people around you., or is it just too big a step up ?
Maybe with all these problems this year Rob Mac may concider a differnet team set up in the future