Ludacris at Le Mans?

By Peter McLaren

One of the more interesting sponsor announcements over the winter was the news that a record label owned by American hip-hop giant Ludacris would be backing the Blata-WCM team.

The label includes Ludacris and other artists such as I-20, Shawnna, Lil' Fate and Jay Cee - who are expected to be trackside regulars at MotoGP this season. Crash.net caught up with WCM rider James Ellison at last week's London MotoGP launch to find out more about the team's new sponsor...

"DTP is his record label - 'Disturbing Tha Peace' - it's interesting for them to come on board and it's just opening up a bigger market; he's really popular in America and it'll help his profile in Europe - which is something he wants to do - and we want to improve our profile worldwide. It's definitely going to be interesting," Ellison explained.

"I haven't met him yet, but there are plans to meet him," continued James. "I think he'll probably come out (to a MotoGP) when the V6 is there, so possibly Le Mans or whatever. I wouldn't like to say really, but I know he's not coming until the V6 is out."

And is Ludacris a bike fan already, and if so could we see him ride the MotoGP bike - as Michael Jordan did with the Ducati at Valencia?

"Yeah, he's a massive bike fan - he's also a minimoto fan now he's seen them on the internet - he saw them for the first time a few weeks ago and I think he's ordered a couple of them," revealed the Brit.

"It would definitely be interesting to see him out there on one (the Blata V6) - I don't know if Peter (Clifford) would let him - I know he's got a couple of quads and some bikes that he likes to play on at home, so he's definitely into it, which is good. You need people that are into bikes to appreciate what goes on," he added.

Ellison and team-mate Franco Battiani are expected to ride last year's Harris WCM four-cylinder machines in this weekend's season-opening Spanish Grand Prix.

The full interview with Ellison can be found in the Crash.net Radio archive...