James Ellison claimed the European Superstock title in 1999, 2000 and 2001, then moved on to the Supersport World Championship, before winning the Endurance World Championship in 2003. Towards the end of 2004, the British rider was asked to race for the WCM MotoGP team after their regular rider, Chris Burns, was injured. He finished 13th at Qatar, and the team signed him for the full 2005 season. Ellison entered MotoGP full time with the V6 Blata in 2005, scoring 7 points for the privateer team. 2006 saw him move to the Tech 3 Yamaha team, where at Philip Island he switched bikes mid-race, from a bike with slicks to one with rain tires. He finished out of the points, but made history as the first rider ever make a mid race switch. Ellison returns to MotoGP in 2012 after signing with the Paul Bird Motorsport team to ride their Aprilia powered CRT project for two seasons.