Sorry Mate
24-08-2011Ellison works hard on sorrymate.com Honda debut James Ellison put in a strong performance on his sorrymate.com Honda debut in the British Superbike Championship at the weekend and was rewarded with points in his very first outing. Torrential rain at Oulton Park meant only one race could be held on Sunday but the Cumbrian ace fought his way superbly through the pack from 23rd on the first lap to 11th at the end for 5 hard earned points. After spending all of this season in the World Supersport 600cc Championship, Ellison soon got dialled in to the Superbike machine and placed 4th quickest in Friday's opening free practice session. A further two tenths of a second were shaved off his time in the afternoon's session but Saturday dawned wet although he was still on the pace, running 10th quickest. Having been in the top ten in every session, the team were hoping to replicate that in qualifying but just as he was on a personal best lap, James was held up by another rider in the final sector and the time lost meant he slipped down the order to 19th place. The grid position wasn't helped by heavy rain on race day and it got worst at the first corner when James had to take avoiding action when Patrick Muff crashed out in front of him. Subsequently, he found himself down in 23rd place at the end of the first lap but, utilising his wet weather prowess, he soon began to make his way through the pack. By lap 7 he was up to 15th and inside the points and when the safety car came out a lap later, it allowed the pack to bunch up. The car pulled in with 6 laps remaining and James overhauled Alex Lowes, Chris Walker, Ryuichi Kiyonari and Glen Richards to take a fighting 11th place at the chequered flag. Equally pleasing was the fact that James had the 9th fastest lap of the race thus was scheduled to start race 2 from the third row of the grid. However, the weather had other ideas and as the rain worsened, the organisers had little option other than to abandon the meeting with the race now taking place at a later date. Speaking later, team owner Robin Croft said: "We've had a mixed bag this weekend and although FP1 went smoothly, FP2 was frantic, to say the least, as electrical problems caused us to miss 15 minutes of the session. Despite not having ridden a Superbike since last year, James was still running a strong top ten pace and we were very hopeful for more of the same in qualifying although this was scuppered when he was held up by traffic on his quick lap." "Starting from 19th on the grid wasn't the best, particularly in the wet, and it was made worse for James by a first corner crash that caused him to lose time. He was down in the pack and really up against it but he really showed his class and rode brilliantly to fight his way up to 11th at the chequered flag. His lap times meant we were a lot higher up the grid for the second race and we were all looking for a good result but the weather was really bad and cancellation of the race was the only decision. Contrary to what's been portrayed, the bike isn't what James rode last year although it is similar spec and he had the pace to qualify in the top six and run with some of the main Championship contenders in the race so we're more than confident for the remaining rounds." The next round of the British Superbike Championship takes place on the Brands Hatch GP circuit, August 5-7. Picture by Glynne Lewis
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