JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison was never outside the top three fastest times during the MCE British Superbike free practice sessions at Snetterton, but the Kendal rider was not too content with his pace this afternoon.
The current championship leader set quicker times during the official test at the 300 circuit a few weeks ago, which was held in warmer temperatures. But today the track was much colder, and Ellison felt that the SCO tyres lacked grip in the cooler climate, and prevented the Cumbrian from edging into the 1’47’s.
He did improve throughout the day and set his best lap of a 1’48.230 in FP2, but Ellison is still feeling dissatisfied but is working hard with his team to improve on his race pace. His aim is to top the time-sheets and to be up the sharp end in every session, and for the title challenger third fastest is simply not good enough for the Kawasaki man.
“I think everyone is a bit off the pace as Josh is one second slower than the test and Shakey has gone slower, but something doesn’t feel quite right,” said Ellison, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the track.
“The test was ideal conditions - and it was really warm, making the SCO’s work really well as they need a bit of temperature, so I am putting it down to track temperature and we were half a second off today, and we need to find a bit improvement with the bike to give us some more grip on the rear, and that should come with a bit of temperature with the track.
“We have been figuring out why we can’t find the lap time, we haven’t made any developments and we are tying to push as hard as we can. We have to look at where we are at – we are leading the championship and finishing third is not good enough, and I want to be up the sharp end. But I am a Sunday man and there is plenty of time yet to hopefully find that time.”
