As the reigning Supersport World Champion, Cal Crutchlow made a massive impression as a rookie Superbike wonder in the second half of the 2010 season.

Replacing last year’s WSBK champion Ben Spies at Yamaha Sterilgarda, Crutchlow had big shoes to fill and eventually stepped up to the plate following a frustrating start to the season.

His reward is a position in the Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha MotoGP squad for 2011, capping off his WSBK career with Superpole, a win and a second on Sunday at Magny-Cours.

MotoOnline.com.au editor Alex Gobert tracked the talented British star down in the Yamaha garage post-race to talk about his weekend in France and what’s to come in MotoGP for next season.

Crutchlow split wins with Max Biaggi at Magny-Cours to wrap up his WSBK career on Sunday.

This weekend you were able to win Superpole and then also race one before taking second behind Biaggi in race two, so are you happy with that for your final WSBK appearance?

It was good enough, I was happy with that because we’ve been battling all weekend – it was good enough for me. I had to work hard for the second one after I was able to ride away from the boys in the first one.

It seemed like everybody picked it up in the second race, but I was happy enough with a credible result. To leave World Superbike in this form is good enough for me.

It must have been really satisfying to ride away with a comfortable win in race one today, but it looked like race two was a bit of fun chasing Biaggi the whole way, battling for victory once again even if you couldn’t quite get there.

It wasn’t fun! I was pissed off because I couldn’t even stay in his slipstream. They certainly did something to the bike in between races because it weren’t that fast in race one.

In race two I was really battling against it with him, but I could never really get a good enough run on him to have a challenge. It was good though. I was frustrated, but to finish first and second is pretty good.

As the reigning World Supersport Champion entering Superbike as a rookie this year, are you satisfied with your single year in SBK now that it’s all done?

Yeah, if I look at it for the second half of the year I would have been leading the championship – or at least battling for it. I think there were three of us right up there. We had a shit start to the year, but that wasn’t due to our own fault I don’t think. A lot of people could see that.

We got that Yamaha working a lot better from Silverstone onwards, but you have to ride it so much harder than everything else. I think coming into the year I had high expectations, wanted to finish in the top six and I finished fifth, so I’m happy about that.

As reigning Supersport World Champion, Crutchlow impressed with three wins as a Superbike rookie during 2010.

Now comes the big step to MotoGP, which is the pinnacle of motorcycle racing, following in the footsteps of Ben Spies. You must be pumped for this opportunity…

Yeah, you know, I’m looking forward to it. We get on the bike soon, going testing and it should be good. I think I’ve earned the opportunity, you know, I’ve had a good year last year and this year, so Yamaha has put their faith in me again. I’ll hopefully get on good there as well.

Your Supersport and Superbike experience should work pretty well when moving to MotoGP. Do you believe that Superbike is now the main breading ground for GP?

Ah, I still think they pull more people from Moto2 or 250s, for whatever reason. But there are a couple of guys who have gone through from Superbike in the past couple of years and that’s good.

They’re production machines, but in the end some tracks we go around almost just as fast as them. I don’t think there’s a major difference, definitely not in the riders if you look at what Ben has done this year, so it’s credible.

As for next year, what are your expectations? Do you have a particular goal, or entering it with an open mind?

Yeah, I’m going to enter it with an open mind. I want to learn and do the best job that I can to do the job. Ben did that this year, went in there humble, and I want to do a similar job if I can.

It’s going to be difficult, but I’ll do the best job I can in regards to racing and being in MotoGP. It’s going to be difficult, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.

Okay Cal, well thanks for your time and good luck in testing!

Thank you, appreciate it.

Crutchlow will make a much anticipated transition to MotoGP in 2011 with Tech 3 Yamaha.