James Toseland

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James Toseland bigraphy, stories - British motorcycle racer

James Toseland : biography

5 October 1980 –

James Michael Toseland (born 5 October 1980) is an English former motorcycle racer. Toseland was the World Superbike Champion on a Ten Kate Honda, BBC Sport – 7 October 2007 and also won the Superbike World Championship on a Ducati. He is one of only two men, the other being Troy Corser, to have won the World Superbike Championship for two different manufacturers. On 9 September 2011 he officially retired from professional motorsport due to a wrist injury sustained in March 2011 at an official World Superbike Championship testing session at Motorland Aragon, Spain.

Aside from racing, Toseland is a keen pianist (reaching Grade 6) and singer-songwriter who, until recently, performed regularly with his band Crash at gigs across the world. However, Toseland is also a talented solo artist and in the past has performed alongside Ray Stubbs for BBC’s Sport Relief and played a piano set at the British sports personality of the year awards in 2007.

MotoGP

2008

Toseland was linked with the Pramac d’Antin MotoGP team, although rumours had also abounded of a ride with a Honda outfit, and even of Ten Kate Racing making the step up to the premier class and taking Toseland with them. However, Toseland confirmed a move to MotoGP for 2008 on 1 August 2007 when he announced that he had signed a one-year contract with factory supported Yamaha team Tech 3. For 2008 Tech 3 switched from Dunlop to Michelin tyres and it was confirmed that Toseland’s team mate would be Colin Edwards. Toseland also signed a deal with British leathers company BKS to supply him with suits while competing in the 2008 MotoGP world championship.

Facing eight unknown tracks, Toseland had reason to expect a tough season , but he was immediately more competitive than originally anticpated. He qualified in second place and finished sixth in the opening race at Qatar on 9 March.

He then qualified in eighth place and finished sixth at Jerez on 30 March despite suffering from bronchitis.

Toseland shrugged off criticism from fellow MotoGP riders about his aggressive riding style. Chris Vermeulen, Andrea Dovizioso and Casey Stoner were all vocal in their displeasure of Toseland’s aggressive overtaking moves. However, he downplayed the talk and stated that his moves were "hard but fair", and that it was his job to overtake his rivals when he had the chance to do so. autosport.com, retrieved on 10 April 2008.

Before the British MotoGP round at Donington Park, Toseland said that if he were the first Briton to win in 27 years at the top level that he would strip naked on the ride back to the pits. However, he crashed in the first corner of the race, but picked his bike up to finish in 17th place, his worst finish of the season to that point, over a lap behind the winner Casey Stoner.

Toseland struggled through the middle part of the season for top ten finishes, achieving two ninth places (the Netherlands and the United States). One of James’ better showings was at Brno where he finished 13th, ahead of his team mate Colin Edwards. Amidst Bridgestone dominance he was the third-highest finisher on Michelin tires, the first being Andrea Dovizioso placed in ninth. At Phillip Island he ran third for a while but ultimately faded to sixth after frantic battles with the factory-supported Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo as well as Dovizioso and Shinya Nakano.

Overall Toseland had a mixed first year in the Moto GP class, finishing 11th overall in the championship with 105 points. Inconsistency was one of the main problems as he was unable to record regular top ten results despite having only two DNFs.

2009

It was confirmed that Toseland would stay on for 2009 with the Tech 3 Yamaha team, racing alongside Colin Edwards as he did in 2008. Yamaha also decided to continue its relationship with the Tech 3 brand through to 2010.

In pre-season testing, Toseland suffered two major accidents, one of them resulting in him being diagnosed with concussion. The start of the season was difficult for Toseland as he could not find a bike set-up that was comfortable. In 2008 Toseland had been unhappy with the communication with his engineer and his complaints led to a switch of crew chief with team-mate Colin Edwards. Edwards resented this change and refused to speak with Toseland during the early rounds of the season. Despite the change in crew chief Toseland only finished ahead of Edwards in two races for the year. Toseland also received jump-start penalties at the Laguna Seca and Phillip Island rounds, the former resulting in a disqualification.