James_Toseland

James Toseland

James Toseland (born 5 October, 1980 in Doncaster , South Yorkshire), is an English motorcycle racer. Toseland is the reigning World Superbike Champion on a Ten Kate Honda, who also won the Superbike World Championship on a Ducati. Toseland is currently competing in Moto GP for the Yamaha Tech 3 team.
As well as being a motorcyclist, Toseland is also an accomplished pianist and singer who performs regularly with his band "Crash" when not at home in the Isle of Man, Toseland performed alongside Ray Stubbs for BBC's Sport Relief, as well as playing a piano set at the British sports personality of the year awards 2007.

Biography

Born in Doncaster , his parents separated and James was raised by his mother in Kiveton Park in Rotherham . After his mother started a relationship with Ken Wright, James accepted him as his default father figure, and began taking interest in Ken's hobbies. James started taking piano lessons aged eight, taught by a professional pianist; while he also started riding motocross bikes on the coal slag heaps close to his home.

While his mother struggled with income, Ken and James would attend Junior trials and motocross events across the UK. After his mother's relationship with Ken started breaking down in his early teens, James chose to support his depressed mother and ended his relationship with Ken after he broke up with his mother - Ken later committed suicide. Toseland kept up his piano lessons achieving Grade 6 - not enough for him to gain a place at the London College of Music.

Motorcycle racing career

Transferring his motorcycle career from off-road to road racing after Ken's death, Toseland quickly worked his way up through the ranks becoming 1995 Junior Road Race Champion and moving on to 125cc racing in the UK Superteen series and sprang to prominence in the late nineties when he dominated the Honda CB500 cup series aged 17. He was picked up to ride a Supersport Honda and won races at national level.

World Supersport 1998-1999

As a result he was signed to the factory Castrol Honda World Supersport squad where he rode for two years finishing 18th and 11th in the championship with best results of 8th in his first year and 6th in the first round of the second year.

British Superbikes 2000

He joined the British Superbike Championship series in 2000, riding for Paul Bird's Vimto-sponsored team on a Honda VTR He contested the first seven rounds, missing four more through injury, and over the course of these picked up 101 points. Altogether, this placed him 12th in the championship, results included seven in the top eight, with sixth place in two separate Oulton Park meetings.

Superbike World Championship

2001-2003

In aged 20, Toseland joined the GSE team to partner Neil Hodgson in World Superbikes. Having never taken a top 5 finish in either the British Superbike Championship or the Supersport World Championship, he was not initially as competitive as Hodgson. But by late he was challenging for top 5 results and took 7th place overall that year. In the team was more competitive than ever, allowing James to take his first win at Oschersleben and 3rd in the championship.

2004

In After Both Neil Hodgson and Ruben Xaus left World Superbikes to race in MotoGP, Toseland joined the factory Fila Ducati team as second rider to the experienced Regis Laconi,racing the dominant 999 F04 motorcycle. Toseland put together a consistent series to stay with Regis Laconi all the way, and ahead at several stages. The final races at Magny-Cours saw the youngster out-ride his experienced team-mate, giving Toseland the title by a nine point margin. A final tally of 336 included three wins and eleven other podium results

2005

proved to be more of a struggle for Toseland, with a lack of team support as well as the returning Suzuki and Yamaha teams, and the improving Honda camp of five riders including Chris Vermeulen and Pierfrancesco Chili. This combination of factors ended the domination of Ducati, and Troy Corser took the championship on a Suzuki, with Toseland finishing 5th.

2006

For Toseland switched to the Winston Ten Kate Racing Honda racing team, replacing the MotoGP-bound Chris Vermeulen, where he rode alongside Australian Karl Muggeridge. He won the season-opener in Qatar, and finished 2nd in the championship behind Troy Bayliss. He was contacted to replaced injured Toni Elías for the Fortuna Honda team for a one-off appearance in MotoGP, but this didn't happen for sponsor-related reasons.

Toseland was linked to the D'antin Ducati satellite team in MotoGP in 2006, and received an offer to ride for them in 2007. D'antin have not performed well in recent years however, and Toseland turned the offer down, not willing to make up the grid on a bike that wasn't competitive.

2007

Toseland remained in WSBK for with Ten Kate Racing Honda, despite a firm offer from the Pramac d'Antin team to race in MotoGP. Toseland posted a first/second combination at the first meeting in Qatar , and at Philip Island. He won one race in each of the first five meetings of the year. At Assen he almost took a pair of wins but he was passed by Bayliss, losing by 0.009 seconds. Toseland won his first ever World Superbike double at Brands Hatch on August 5 giving him a 66 point lead in the championship. In the final race at Magny-Cours, he claimed the 2007 World Superbike title with a pole position, seventh position in Race 1, and a sixth place in Race 2, to leave him 2 points ahead of Japan's Noriyuki Haga.

Sports Personality of the Year 2007

Toseland was nominated for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year 2007 award and came fourth, 710 votes behind Ricky Hatton. He demonstrated his piano-playing abilities in the ceremony, performing a specially written blues/jazz piece. Toseland was however voted as the 2007 BBC Yorkshire Sports Personality of the Year.

MotoGP

2008

Toseland was again 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. But eventually 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 it was also confirmed that Toseland's teammate would be Colin Edwards. Toseland has signed a deal with British leather company BKS to supply him with suits whilst competing in the 2008 MotoGP world championship.

Facing eight unknown tracks, Toseland had reason to expect a tough season , but he was immediately more competitve than expected. He qualified in second place and finished sixth in the opening race in Qatar on the 9th March 2008.

He then qualified in 8th place and finished sixth in Jerez on the 30th March despite suffering from bronchitis.

Toseland has shrugged off criticism from fellow MotoGP riders about his aggressive riding style. Chris Vermeulen and world champion Casey Stoner have both been vocal in their displeasure of Toseland's aggressive overtaking moves. James has downplayed the talk and stated that his moves are "hard but fair", and that it is his job to overtake his rivals when he has the chance to do so.

Before the British Moto Gp round at Donington Park, Toseland said that if he was to be 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 10 finishes, achieving two 9th places in Holland & the United States. One of James's 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 9th. At Phillip Island he ran 3rd for a while but ultimately faded to 6th after frantic battles with the works Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, plus Dovizioso and Shinya Nakano.

Career statistics

MotoGP results

(MotoGP results legend) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Yr	Class	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Final Pos	Pts
2008	MotoGP	Yamaha	QAT 6	SPA 6	POR 7	CHN 12	FRA Ret	ITA 6	CAT 6	GBR 17	NED 9	GER 11	USA 9	CZE 13	SMR 6	IND 18	JPN 11	AUS 6	MAL -	VAL -	-	-

All Time Stats

Year	Series		Poles	Races	Podiums	Wins	2nd place	3rd place	Fast Laps	Titles
All Time	Moto GP		0	16	0	0	0	0	0	0
All Time	Superbike (SBK)		4	166	57	16	24	17	2	2
All Time	Supersport (SSP)		0	17	0	0	0	0	0	0
Year	Series	Bike	Poles	Races	Podiums	Wins	2nd place	3rd place	Fast Laps	Position
2008	Moto GP	Yamaha M1	0	13	0	0	0	0	0	11th (100 Points)^{In Progress}
2007	SBK	Honda CBR1000RR	2	23	14	8	5	1	1	1st
2006	SBK	Honda CBR1000RR	1	24	12	3	5	4	1	2nd
2005	SBK	Ducati 999 F05	0	23	7	1	2	4	0	4th
2004	SBK	Ducati 999 F04	0	22	14	3	9	2	0	1st
2003	SBK	Ducati 998 F02	1	24	9	1	3	5	0	3rd
2002	SBK	Ducati 998 F01	0	26	1	0	0	1	0	7th
2001	SBK	Ducati 996 RS/00	0	24	0	0	0	0	0	13th