Milwaukee Yamaha's James Ellison showed he had the pace to challenge for this year's MCE British Superbike title and took one more step towards cementing his place in the all-important Showdown finale.
The Kendal man proved he was a force to be reckoned with, bagging a win and a fourth over the three races but had to bail out in the middle encounter after being pushed wide by Alex Lowes into the 140mph Island Bend and finding himself travelling towards the barrier with no option but to hop off.
“To be fair, we didn’t touch at all but I went on to the grass fairly rapidly. I looked at the barriers, did a quick calculation in my head about the size of the gravel trap and opted for a soft landing. Mind you, it still hurt going at that speed on to the grass,” said Ellison, speaking to bikesportnews.com.
“I had been looking to make my way through and go with Shakey like I did in race one. We were pretty evenly matched but when he is in front, I can’t use the corner speed of the Yamaha, so I needed to get through. His bike has more mid-range than mine, even though I have got a little more corner exit, and he is strong on the brakes, so it made it interesting. The pace was a bit slow and we bunched up in race three, tripping each other up but I was pleased to come away with a win and a fourth, and we will be there and fighting for the title.”
Meet Ellison at the Jennings Racing Producs open day on Saturday. Click here for more details