The Milwaukee Yamaha team fought back at the fifth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship at Snetterton today as James Ellison maintained his position in the top six with two top ten finishes and Josh Waters scored his best results of the season.

In the opening race Ellison was in a strong position as he aimed for the podium, but with some improvements still to be made he was determined to build on his fourth place before the second race. Ellison was running third over the opening laps when the safety car was deployed for an incident and once the race resumed a problem with the wheel speed sensor caused him to drop down the order. A gritty performance saw him then climb back up from fifteenth to ninth over the closing laps to maintain his fourth place in the overall standings.

Australian contender Waters had his best round of the season to date with a ninth place in race one which he followed up with another resurgent performance to finish seventh as he proved that he is ready to close in on his rivals ahead of the next round at Brands Hatch in two weeks’ time.

Ellison said:

“Today has obviously been disappointing for me and we seem to have carried the one good race then one bad race over to another weekend! We have been building up gradually and getting faster all weekend and after the fourth in the first race I genuinely thought we had the pace to fight for the podium or perhaps even the win in the second one. In race two I got up to third and then we had the safety car period as and I went for the gear and it wasn’t there. The sensor is a reference for everything and we made some real steps here with hard work and unfortunately that meant we couldn’t show our potential. I took a lap where I dropped down and tried to see if we could reset the problem somehow but then I had a bit of red mist and just went for whatever points I could get. I tried to make a move on Dan Linfoot on the final lap for eighth but I went wide; it was always worth a try! I am disappointed for the whole team as we showed we had the pace but couldn’t translate it to podiums. We took it on the chin and we will come back stronger. We still hold fourth in the standings and that is the most important thing.”


Waters said:

“It has been a better weekend for me and that is good because we came here wanting to turn things around a bit. We had a good test and came here faster, the team worked overtime and I feel we are going in a better direction. I have changed too to try and make myself more comfortable. Unfortunately one of the riders crashed in front of me and I lost a few positions and then the same happened again in race two but at least I was able to stay on and get some good points. I think we can go to Brands Hatch now and continue the momentum and try and get closer to the front group.”

Team owner Shaun Muir concluded:

“From the lows of Knockhill this has been a better weekend and both riders have taken steps forwards, especially Josh who had a better feeling for the bike and chassis and that showed in the results. He feels that he can move forwards now and he is genuinely looking ahead to the next round at Brands Hatch. There was lots of promise for James and he had good race pace, but again we were left disappointed that a wheel speed sensor spoiled his performance. He was just unlucky. I feel we can move forward now at Brands Hatch.”


Pic by Impact Images
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