Westmoreland confirmed at Motorpoint Yamaha

Motorpoint Yamaha has confirmed today that James Westmoreland is joining 17-year-old French sensation Loris Baz in their British Superbike line-up for this year.

His signing makes it, not only the youngest top team line-up on the BSB grid, but also the least superbike-experienced.

Baz has three BSB rounds on the team’s bike from last year following his Croft debut while Westmoreland starts the year as a BSB rookie having finished runner-up in last year’s British Supersport series riding an R6.

Westmoreland tested the team’s R1 at Cartagena before Christmas, just prior to having an operation to relieve arm-pump that had started to affect some of his performances last year on the Came Yamaha.

He said: “I’m quite excited about racing the Yamaha this year. The R1 suits certain people. You have to ride it in a different way and you either gel with it or you don’t.

“I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn when I say I gelled with it during my three-day test at Cartagena.

“You have to ride the Yamaha really smooth. It’s why Eugene Laverty was so quick straight away with the WSB bike and the R1 suits my style perfectly too.

“I’m glad I had the operation on my wrists after the test. I had the op on December 17 and I’m already pretty much healed. I knew getting onto a superbike was going to be much harder physically and didn’t want anything holding me back this year.”