Chris Vermeulen (born 19 June 1982, in Brisbane, Australia) is a Grand Prix motorcycle racer. From the 2006 season he switched permanently from the Superbike World Championship to the elite MotoGP series, and the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Team. On 28 August 2009 Suzuki confirmed Vermeulen will leave the team at the end of 2009 season. He is regarded as a wet-weather expert [179848], and is affectionately nicknamed 'Vermin' on account of his last name.

Superbike

In 1999 he raced in the Australian Superbike Championship, despite only having participated in a handful of professional races beforehand. He took his Yamaha to 8th in the championship, with a best result of 4th, and the privateer championship for non-factory riders. His mentor Barry Sheene then arranged rides for him in Britain in their Supersport and Superstock classes, and success in these gave him his World Supersport break with Castrol Honda.

Initial success in a few late-2000 races did not translate into a successful 2001, as he only managed a single top 5 finish. However, in 2002 he linked up with Dutch team owner Gerrit Ten Kate, taking his first poles and podiums en route to 7th in the championship in the 2002 season. He became the team's lead rider for 2003, and became series champion comfortably with four victories, becoming the youngest ever winner.

World Superbike

When Ten Kate arranged a deal to run a Honda Fireblade in World Superbikes for 2004, Chris was the natural choice to ride it. The team did their own development on the bike (in its first test they still used a road-bike clutch), but he still won four races and briefly lead the championship before finishing 4th, as the only non-Ducati in the top 8.

For 2005 the championship had many Yamaha and Suzuki bikes, as well as 4 more Hondas including a second Ten Kate entry for Karl Muggeridge. Chris continued to record victories, and took his first pole at Assen in Holland, the country in which his grandfather was born. Victory in the first race at Imola took him to within 55 points of veteran compatriot Troy Corser's lead, but the cancellation of the second race due to heavy rain meant that only 50 points were still available from the remaining round's 2 races. He still comfortably finished as series runner-up .

Move to MotoGP

He rode factory bikes for Honda in the Suzuka 8 Hours race and, because of sponsorship and manufacturer relationships (Japan Tobacco and Honda, as the Ten Kate Honda team was sponsored by Winston a Japan Tobacco brand), also rode a Camel Pons Honda GP bike at the tail end of the 2005 season.

His progress towards a factory Honda ride seemed assured but Honda were only offering him another year in World Superbike, and Japan Tobacco had switched to Yamaha in MotoGP, so he made the bold decision to quit HRC and go with team Suzuki who signed him in 2006 alongside fellow youngster John Hopkins.

2006 Season

He scored his first MotoGP pole in Turkey after a stunning ride in the wet, coincidentally one round after fellow Australian rookie Casey Stoner scored his maiden pole. After the Sachsenring race he was 14th in the championship on 46 points, 4 places and 18 points behind Hopkins. At the following round at Laguna Seca (a track he knows from his World Superbike days) he took pole position, one of only 2 non-Americans in the first 2 rows of the grid. He had a technical problem while running 3rd. In his home race at Philip Island he was the fastest man once the field had changed to wet tyres, and charged through the field to finish 2nd.

2007 season

The 2007 season saw the introduction of the 800cc GP bikes. Vermeulen made the transition well, achieving a modestly competitive start to his 2007 campaign, with two 7th places, a 9th and an 11th place in the first 4 GPs of the season, consistently racking up points which saw him place inside the top 10 riders for the season. His season came alive on the 20 May 2007 at the Bugatti Circuit Le Mans, where, in a wet race, Vermuelen rode from 12th on the grid to take his maiden victory in MotoGP [179849]. He followed the victory up with an impressive 3rd place at the Nickel & Dime British GP, again from 12th on the grid in the wet behind winner and fellow countryman Casey Stoner [179850], and pole position in the wet at Assen [179851]. He shone in the dry by starting third and finishing second at the US GP (Laguna Seca), again behind Stoner. At this meeting he was confirmed as a Suzuki rider for 2008 [179852].

2008 Season

Suzuki struggled to compete in the [2008 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season | 2008 MotoGP Championship]], with neither Vermeulen or teammate Loris Capirossi able to secure a race victory. Vermeulen did however secure back-to-back podiums in the German Grand Prix and US Grand Prix before finishing the season in eighth place in the rider's standings.

2009 Season

After another difficult season, Vermeulen was told by Suzuki that he would not be offered a new contract for 2010. Álvaro Bautista will take his place in the team.

Return to World Superbikes

After failing to secure a contract to remain in MotoGP for the 2010 Championship, Vermeulen sought a return to the Superbike World Championship.

On 6 October 2009 it was confirmed that he had signed a contract with the Kawasaki Superbike Team for the 2010 Superbike World Championship season, replacing Makoto Tamada. .

Career statistics

By season

Seas	Class	Moto	Team	Race	Win	Pod	Pole	FLap	Pts	Plcd	WCh
2005	MotoGP	Honda RC211V	Sito Pons	2	0	0	0	0	10	21st	-
2006	MotoGP	Suzuki GSV-R	Suzuki MotoGP	17	0	1	2	0	98	11th	-
2007	MotoGP	Suzuki GSV-R	Suzuki MotoGP	18	1	4	1	1	179	6th	-
2008	MotoGP	Suzuki GSV-R	Suzuki MotoGP	18	0	2	0	0	128	8th	-
2009	MotoGP	Suzuki GSV-R	Suzuki MotoGP	13	0	0	0	0	84*	11th*	-
Total				68	1	7	3	1	499		0

• * Season in progress.

By class

Class	Seas	1st GP	1st Pod	1st Win	Race	Win	Podiums	Pole	FLap	Pts	WChmp
MotoGP	2005-Present	2005 Australia	2006 Australia	2007 France	68	1	7	3	1	499	0
Total	2005-Present				68	1	7	3	1	499	0

Races by year

() (Races in bold indicate pole position, races in italics indicate pole position)

Year	Class	Bike	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Pts
2005	MotoGP	Honda	SPA	POR	CHN	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	USA	GBR	GER	CZE	JPN	MAL	QAT	AUS 11	TUR 11	VAL		21st	10
2006	MotoGP	Suzuki	SPA 12	QAT Ret	TUR 7	CHN Ret	FRA 10	ITA 14	CAT 6	NED 10	GBR 16	GER 7	USA 5	CZE 12	MAL 11	AUS 2	JPN 11	POR 9	VAL Ret		11th	98
2007	MotoGP	Suzuki	QAT 7	SPA 9	TUR 11	CHN 7	FRA 1	ITA 8	CAT 7	GBR 3	NED 16	GER 11	USA 2	CZE 5	SMR 2	POR 13	JPN 11	AUS 8	MAL 7	VAL 6	6th	179
2008	MotoGP	Suzuki	QAT 17	SPA 10	POR 8	CHN Ret	FRA 5	ITA 10	CAT 7	GBR 8	NED 7	GER 3	USA 3	CZE 6	SMR 5	IND 9	JPN Ret	AUS 15	MAL 9	VAL 13	8th	128
2009*	MotoGP	Suzuki	QAT 7	JPN 10	SPA 10	FRA 6	ITA 10	CAT 11	NED 5	USA 8	GER 13	GBR 13	CZE 11	IND 11	SMR 9	POR 10	AUS 11	MAL 6	VAL		11th*	105*

• * Season In Progress

Trivia

• He has a penchant for collecting old American Hot Rod cars and has a few in his collection.
• All his racing numbers have the digit "7" as a tribute to his mentor Barry Sheene.

References

1. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/78036
2. Motorcycle-USA Staff. Chris Vermeulen Bio. Motorcycle-USA.com. Retrieved on 2009-06-18.
3. Chris Vermeulen career World Superbike statistics at worldsbk.com
4. Madson, Bart. MotoGP A Closer Look at the 800s. Motorcycle-USA.com. Retrieved on 2009-06-18.

External links

• chrisvermeulen.com Official website
• Chris Vermeulen - MotoGP Rider Bios at Motorcycle-USA