The Swan Honda team had a challenging Swan Combi Roll for Pole qualifying session at Mallory Park yesterday afternoon and Stuart Easton and James Ellison will both start Sunday's opening race from the fourth row of the grid.

Ellison had been consistently improving throughout free practice as he makes his return from injury. He set his best time of the weekend during qualifying as he moved firmly inside the top 15 with his best lap time of 57.063s putting him fifteenth on the grid for the opening race. Easton meanwhile was disappointed with his fourteenth place, but following a debrief with his crew he is determined to make amends in Sunday's two races.

Ellison said:

"It has been a hard day for me again. It is so physical at Mallory Park and I have always been so fit where I work so hard at my training, that to not be at one hundred percent fitness has been tough. I think my fitness has always been my advantage and I can normally find extra tenths in my times thanks to that, but I haven't been able to train to my full potential for the past ten weeks because of my injury. On the other side though I have gone from sitting on the sidelines with a broken femur to qualifying in 15th place on the grid, so I am happy with the improvements since yesterday. It would have nice to be inside that top ten, but now I am focussed on the race and scoring some good points for the championship. I need to thank Shaun Muir and everyone at Swan Honda for keeping the faith in me during what has been a really challenging time and I want to repay them for their support."

Easton said:

"I am not happy with a fourth row start, but things just haven't worked out for us so far at Mallory Park. We had some problems that we were working through but we just didn't manage to get back where we needed to be for qualifying. The only plus side is that we have looked at the data and have some idea on what we need to focus on in warm up and then if we just go for it in race one, then we should start from a better grid position for race two."