The Swan Honda team returned to full strength at Mallory Park today for the opening two free practice sessions at Mallory Park ahead of the fifth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship this weekend.

James Ellison was back aboard the Swan Honda as he made his much-anticipated return to the championship following his Thruxton injury. He gradually improved his lap times throughout the two sessions to finish just outside the top 20 - 1.584 seconds adrift of Michael Laverty’s fastest time of the day.

Stuart Easton was sixth fastest on the second of the Swan Hondas; he had suffered a minor technical problem in the opening session which halted his progress earlier in the day, but this afternoon he was again closing the gap to his championship rivals.

Ellison said:

“I had the test here two weeks’ ago and I have been able to continue training, so I am fitter now than I was then. My leg actually felt better after the second session today than it did the first, as the more time you spend on track the more you can get back into a rhythm and it builds up lap after lap - you could see that as I improved my times. I have no problem riding the Swan Honda but I am currently just lacking that little bit of extra strength that would put me up at the front. It is hard for me to see P21 on the pitboard, but at the same time today was only practice so I think there will be more to come. Mentally I am ready for qualifying tomorrow and the races on Sunday and I am going to be giving it everything.”



Easton said:

“It hasn’t been the easiest of days for me and this track always throws up some challenges, just because of the nature of the circuit but to end in sixth is not a bad start and we have some good direction to build on now ahead of qualifying tomorrow. We used the same tyre this afternoon and my best time came on that with around 35 laps already run on it, so we know that we are not a million miles away and it is a case of just making some further improvements tomorrow so that we are set for the races on Sunday.”