INTERVIEW
JAMES RISPOLI
P76
season was up and I got to prove
that I could do it. I knew I could
from the beginning of the year, but
it just took all that time to get the
right pieces in."
Another thing that helped turn
things around was the team's
mid-season switch from Suzukis to
Yamahas.
"Luckily I've got a team that
isn't politically tied down," Rispoli
said. "We made a change, which
no team, I don't think, would be
able to do middle of the season.
Switching brands to be able to get
on a little bit better package for
that year and to move forward was
pretty unique and pretty outstanding. When we
made the change, we did really, really well right
off the bat, but it still took a few rounds before we
could get on the podium."
So the bold move paid off and should pay more
dividends this season.
"We made the brand switch mid-season to try
to get that five races of testing done and kind of
get up to speed," Rispoli said. "So moving into
this year it would be a lot smoother and already
have these things established.
We've got parts and all that and
the team's good with it. Now it's
kind of like, we go from Brands
Hatch [final race of 2014] to
testing and it's not like we're
starting all over. We've got some
time and data into it. I get on the
bike and it's already mine, not
foreign."
For Rispoli, his season started
at the fifth round at Brands Hatch
with the switch to Yamaha.
"The first session out at Brands
Hatch, first time on the Yamaha,
we were only 0.6 of a second off
the top guy," Rispoli said. "So it
was improvement right away. On the Suzuki we
were struggling to get within a second. So right
then and there we knew we were fast."
Surprisingly though, it all came together
in the wet, despite Rispoli's lack of wet-race
experience.
"When we went to Cadwell we still struggled
with some stuff and some mechanicals," Rispoli
said. "We missed a couple sessions because of
that. It started raining and I just remember we had
"I'VE SAID THIS
MANY TIMES, BUT
LITERALLY IF A
KNIGHT IN SHINING
ARMOR RODE
DOWN ON A HORSE
WHERE I LIVED, YOU
WOULDN'T BE LIKE,
THAT'S WEIRD."
Rispoli works with
chiropractor Nick Crabill
at the Rockwell Training
Center to rehab his
shoulder after having
surgery a few weeks ago.
Putting in
the work to
get back to
a hundred
percent
for his
sophomore
season
in BSB
Supersport.
