BSB: Hydrex Bike Animal Honda Thruxton summary

SEVENTH HEAVEN FOR ELLISON

Hydrex Bike Animal Honda rider James Ellison overcame problems during qualifying to post an impressive pair of seventh place finishes when round two of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship took place at Thruxton in Hampshire today.

Technical problems had blighted Shaun Muir's team during pre-season testing and also throughout this weekend, but some radical changes by the team overnight saw Ellison and team-mate Guy Martin improve along with the weather conditions on race day.

Ellison battled from his fourth row grid position to claim seventh in the opening twenty lap race and following an accident in race two which saw the race reduced to fifteen laps, he did likewise to open his points campaign for the year.

Martin's fifteenth place in race one saw him score a solitary point but he improved considerably in the second outing to take ninth position to justify the hard work which the team had put in throughout the weekend.

After the opening round at Brands Hatch was cancelled due to snow, it means that Ellison and Martin lie in fifth and thirteenth respectively in the championship going into the next round at Oulton Park in two weeks time.

James Ellison: "I'm happy enough. If we'd had a couple more laps in the last race I could have got up a couple more places. We made a lot of big changes between Saturday and Sunday which normally you don't do but we needed to make some time up. I'm pleased for Shaun, Hydrex and Bike Animal and it's good to put a good show on for them. I feeling happy going into the next round."

Guy Martin: "We put some new front forks in last night and the first race was just to get the gist of where we wanted to be. We took a step in the right direction so for the second race we made some more adjustments and it worked again so we made another step in the right direction. We'll just keep plugging away, it's going to come and I'm going to make myself a short circuit rider! The team has worked so hard, especially Warren, Kate, James and Havier so thanks to them."

Shaun Muir (Team Owner): "We've finally given James a bike he can race and not just drag around the circuit. The team has worked so hard for this and we will be challenging for the podium. All I expected was two top tens for James and two top fifteen places for Guy and both have bettered that. Now we can turn up at Oulton Park and be challenging for a podium. We have a test at Castle Combe before then where we'll be doing some more development work. I feel that we've now turned the corner and it's all looking very positive."

-credit: hbat