Pirelli backs Virgin.

Italian tyre manufacturer, Pirelli, has pledged full factory support to Virgin Mobile Yamaha for the 2007 season.

The Virgin team will run riders in three classes of the British Championships this coming season, therefore establishing a strong working relationship between Virgin Yamaha and Pirelli for research and development purposes.

Pirelli has already experienced success with the team after Tommy Hill's pole position in his debut World Superbike outing at Silverstone in 2006. Running with the Italian rubber opens up the opportunity for Virgin Yamaha to showcase the talents of its riders on the World scene once again this season.

James Haydon and Tommy Hill will hope to prosper with the use of the Pirelli Diablo Superbike tyres that have shown immense potential in WSB over the past few years.

Pirelli's success in the Supersport class is well documented, with Cal Crutchlow dominating the 2006 season. Virgin Mobile hopes to replicate this achievement during its first foray into the 600 class with Billy McConnell and Tom Grant on the latest generation Yamaha YZF R6 machines. Pirelli will supply the Diablo Supercorsa, as used in the latter half of last season by World Supersport teams.

The R6 Cup competitors will also switch to Pirelli for the coming season, and use the latest generation of the street racing Diablo Corsa III as the control tyre.

Team Owner, Rob McElnea said, "This is great news for Yamaha and my team. We have built up a great relationship with Pirelli and have got accustomed to their one hundred percent commitment to our Superbike efforts. For them now to agree to support our Supersport and Virgin Mobile Cup teams will only add more credence to our racing efforts. We will be all working towards repaying Pirelli with race wins and hopefully championships in 2007 and beyond!"

Jason Griffiths, Pirelli Moto UK Racing Manager also commented saying, "To work with Virgin Yamaha in these 3 racing classes is very exciting. They are an extremely professional team with a great balance of youth and experience, which should provide not just a successful season of racing, but a successful future for all involved."