Image: Keith Muir.

Yamaha Racing Team with YMI manager John Redding has no problem with Kevin Curtain confirming his return to racing on an Aprilia at Sydney’s Australasian Superbike Championship final, despite YRT’s mid-season split with the longtime Yamaha legend.

Curtain sensationally quit the sport after a difficult opening ASC round at Wakefield Park in March but will now suit up again on board a Team Trinder Aprilia next month, taking on R1-mounted YRT trio Cru Halliday, Robbie Bugden and Rick Olson aboard an RSV4.

First hints of Curtain’s Trinder reunion were leaked on Facebook late last month and his plans to contest the Sydney Motorsport Park finale were finally made official on Tuesday by the Aprilia-supported team. That news was little surprise to Redding once confirmed.

“We were aware of what was happening after seeing a couple of teasers on Facebook,” Redding told CycleOnline. “When it went public I wasn’t that surprised, but I guess he may have gone through the grieving process of retirement and decided its not for him – I’m not sure.

“As I’d mentioned previously, we had spoken to Kevin once about testing for us, and I spoke to him again yesterday about that. We don’t know any more about that, what we have to work with or what our plans are, but no, I wasn’t overly surprised about the announcement.”

Redding said the possibility of Curtain playing a lead role in development of the 2015 YZF-R1 race package upon arrival is still open, as YRT crew chief Kev Marshall is a major supporter of Curtain’s vast experience and development capabilities.

“If he’s interested in riding for people, he’s a free-agent and can do what he likes,” Redding added. “At this stage we’d only considered testing with Kevin and him racing [elsewhere] isn’t a real problem for us either way.

“We came to an agreement following Wakefield that he wasn’t going to race for us anymore and I guess if he had jumped on another bike right away we’d have been pretty disappointed, but maybe he’s waited an appropriate period of time, or he’s got to the point that he’s sick of sitting at home or fishing, even if it is a one-off.”

Curtain’s 2014 contract with Yamaha ceased following his retirement decision post-Wakefield Park’s opening round, prompting YRT to downsize to a three-rider operation for the season-remainder and likely into 2015.