BSB: Ellison suffers “frustrating” Snetterton, looks to bounce back at Knockhill

James Ellison suffered yet another difficult weekend onboard the Anvil Hire Tag Racing Yamaha, as he looked to propel himself nearer to the Showdown. The Cumbrian ace and his Yamaha team had a great plan for the Q3 session but he was unfortunately pushed out during the last moments, setting the pattern for the remainder of the weekend.

Ellison was involved in a turn two incident on the opening lap of race one, as Andrew Irwin took out Michael Laverty and both the Honda UK riders of Jason O’Halloran and Dan Linfoot. Ellison and Tyco BMW rider Christian Iddon had to take evasive action, placing both towards the rear of the field.

Having recovered to 8th in race one, Ellison was revitalised for race two and was running a strong fourth until an unforced error at turn four saw the former runner-up crash out. It was Ellison’s third race without points and places him 34 points behind the ‘Showdown’ placings.

“It’s been a somewhat frustrating weekend, we’ve made steady progress and we’ve got a good bike but we seem to be a little bit off the pace, but not a lot. We tried different setup’s and we reverted back to the softer front tyre, which worked brilliantly.

“Race one after the crashes I was second last, so I had my work cut out. The bike was working great, and I picked my way through the pack but then my visor started steaming up and I lost out to Hicky on the last lap.

“Race two I got away well and I wasn’t pushing at all, but then I hit the curb and I went down. I’m really gutted for the team, they’ve worked so hard, but I’ll be back stronger at Knockhill.”

Ellison was on the podium at Knockhill last season and in 2016, whilst his first podium at the circuit came in 2008, for Hydrex Honda.