West began this year as a 250GP privateer, before making a victorious switch to World Supersport in place of injured countryman Kevin Curtain. West's superb performances on the R6 prompted Yamaha to sign him full time, but he'd also caught the eye of Kawasaki - looking to replace Olivier Jacque - and Ant returned to the MotoGP paddock at
Donington Park on a ZX-RR.
The deal was initially only until the end of the season, but West received a substantial boost when he was retained to ride alongside
John Hopkins in 2008, after
Randy de Puniet jumped ship to Honda LCR.
"It's been exciting," Ant told
Crash.net. "I started the year in 250, then went 600 Supersport and now into
MotoGP. It's been a pretty crazy year, but it's turned out to be a good one. I always preferred bigger bikes to the 250, so it actually wasn't too difficult to jump on something with more weight and power.
"I have to pinch myself a bit to believe what's happened this season, but it's probably even more hard work now I'm here," he continued. "I definitely have to put a lot more into it, so I can stay in MotoGP, because this is really where I want to be.
"It's good to finally get some testing in before a grand prix season starts, I've never really had that before and it makes a big difference. We've just come from Malaysia and now we're heading for
Jerez in Spain. It's going to be pretty hectic over the winter. I'll have a few weeks off for Christmas and then straight back into it."
The wet weather ace took a best finish of seventh during his eleven MotoGP starts this season - and could well have achieved more had it not been for two start-line infringements - but the Australian says he was never completely comfortable on the bike.
"When we were racing it didn't really feel like my bike, but now we're starting to change a few things and it feels better," he said. "We've made a big improvement to some problems I'd been having with the bike all season, and it's only the beginning of testing. So it's starting to look good."
