The Swan Honda team returned to the podium today at Croft as Stuart Easton secured two third places at the tenth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship whilst James Ellison came close to a podium return.

Ellison and Easton were formation flying in the opening race of the day to challenge for the final podium position, but bad luck struck Ellison once again as he was forced to retire with a puncture whilst battling for third. This left Easton to secure third place and both riders started the second race from the front row of the grid. In race two Easton made it a repeat performance with his first double podium finish of the season as Ellison was just edged out of the top five by Michael Rutter to finish in sixth.

Easton said:

"It has been a much better weekend for me and I am so happy to be back up on the podium and putting the Swan Honda where it should be. Two podiums from two races is all I could have hoped for today and they were tough, especially race two as I had a bit of tension in my arm. The podium in the first race got the monkey off my back and I was able to relax a bit for race two and then go out and repeat the performance. It has been an unbelievable weekend and fair play to the team as they have worked so hard for this result. I also need to thank the team, all of our sponsors and supporters who have stood by me this season."

Ellison said:

“It has been a weird weekend for me and one of mixed emotions. I felt like I was getting stronger throughout the event and I was so happy with how qualifying went and to be on the front row. We came out and had a good warm up session so I was feeling good for the races. I was up fighting for the podium and the bike just didn’t feel right on the front; I tried to ride around the problem but it wasn’t until about half way through the race that I knew something was very wrong. I thought I could stay out and salvage some good points as I was in fourth but it just got too bad and I nearly launched myself a few times. In the second race I just got caught behind Michael Rutter and I passed him but then ran wide on more than one occasion, so that was disappointing as I was hoping for more this weekend.”

Team Manager Shaun Muir concluded:

“I am really pleased for the whole of the Swan Honda team and all of our sponsors, particularly with Stuart showing real determination to take two podium finishes. They were hard fought and it justifies his efforts over the past few rounds. It was unfortunate for James as he had a puncture in race one whilst challenging for a podium and then in race two he was caught behind Michael Rutter and couldn’t do the lap times that perhaps he could have if he had been able to pass him. This weekend has set us up well for Silverstone and although we are not in the fight for the title it shows that we can still mix up the results at the final two rounds.”