This was good enough for an offer to stay with the Team for 2006 alongside 2003 champion Shane Byrne. After a strong start at Oulton Park on identical bikes, James was made to run a different development bike to Byrne with a changed weight balance. He disliked the new bike immediately and blamed his sudden poor form and crashes on the change of machine. But with his ally the experienced Paul Denning (ex- Suzuki Team Manager) off in MotoGP and a new Team manager who had never worked in motorsport before, James struggled. After a heavy crash at Mallory he missed round 6 through injury then returned at Snetterton for Round 7. In race 2 a serious brake problem at the end of the Revvit straight caused him to run off the track at high speed. Unable to slow properly he shot across the track and collided with Dean Thomas. This caused an unfortunate crash which left Thomas and Haydon injured. Both riders soon recovered although only Haydon returned to race that season. Afterwards the incident was reviewed by an RAC panel and Haydon was cleared of all responsibility when the data logging proved the problem had been completely outside his control.