77 James Ellison McAMS Yamaha

James Ellison and Michael Laverty have always shown promise in BSB, but while both are capable of winning races and fighting for titles, they’ve always ended up as the ‘nearly men’. This year, they team up in the allnew McAMS Yamaha squad and after a disappointing 2016, they’re both out to prove a point. Having turned heads with their pace in Cartagena despite the team having only taken delivery of most of their parts a week before the test, the duo are already looking strong and with backing from Yamaha’s race HQ in Italy, could this be their year to shine? “I’ve won races for the last few years and always been at the sharp end but I’ve never won the championship and that’s something I’m still hungry for,” says Ellison. “The thing is, you don’t just win the championship by being a good rider, you don’t win by training your arse off, or having the best bike – it’s a combination of these things and whether it goes right on the day. “Last year was difficult for me, there were a lot of things I didn’t like about the bike. It wasn’t coming together so I needed a new challenge and the Yamaha will hopefully be the bike with which I can take the title.” After not making the showdown for the first time last year, Laverty is also hoping to make amends on the YZF-R1 as the season gets underway. “After winning two races and being up there at the start of last season, it just sort of fell apart in the second half of the year,” he explains. “That means this year has to be a title-challenging year for me, I've won races with three different manufacturers and after testing, I'm confident of returning to the sharp end.”