Contrasting fortunes for the Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki team at the fourth round of the British Superbike Championship at Knockhill saw Chris ‘Stalker’ Walker take to the podium whilst James Ellison was unlucky to be taken out and then struggle with a lowly grid position for the second race.

The weekend started off with a crash for fan favourite Walker in free practice one which resulted in two broken fingers for the Nottinghamshire man. James Ellison also experienced troubles on Friday with set up issues, but the team was confident of improving their fortunes for Saturday’s qualifying.

Saturday saw both riders make it through to the final stage of qualifying, but only after a fuel pump problem forced Ellison to watch the clock tick and with minutes remaining of the session he made it through to Q2. After a change of tank, Q2 went to plan with James and Chris making it through to the final 10 minute session. However during the final session Ellison experienced the same problem again but was able to ride around the issue and put his Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki on the second row of the grid, only 0.09 seconds off the pole position time. Walker was sat behind his team mate on the third row of the grid in 8th.

Race day came and the fortunes of the team shifted sands. From the start in race one James found himself challenging for the top three until a collision with Stuart Easton forced him to crash and his race was over. With Chris now flying the flag for the team he made his way from his grid position of 8th into 4th but as the race went on Chris dropped back to fifth, and did well to hold off a charging Tommy Bridewell.

Race Two saw the Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki team carry on their podium run with Chris battling hard to finish in third for his 50th BSB podium. After starting in 14th place (from his early retirement in race one) James made a storming start to move up into 8th position, but after a race long battle with Dan Linfoot he then experienced brake trouble and rode well to bring his Kawasaki ZX10-R home for a solid points finish.

A jubilant Chris Walker said after Race Two:

“I was chuffed to bits with race one, a fifth in that and it was a battling fifth. I struggled in the last 12 laps with the throttle because of my finger. A lighter throttle spring helped me and I’m so happy for Lloyds British GBmoto to get on the podium. A good weekend for me, getting back on the podium…Old but Gold!”

A disappointed James Ellison said:

“It’s the worst weekend we’ve had in a long time, we’ve gone from a 100% podium finish to a DNF and an eighth. We had a really good qualifying but it’s all stemmed from the crash in race one. We had to change the brakes for the second race and I just couldn’t stop. I kept losing the front and picking the bike up off my knee. We can’t win them all and everyone has a bogey weekend and this one has been mine.”

Team Manager Terry Liquiorish said:

“The weekend started off not too great with Chris tipping off in Free Practice but carrying a slight injury he dug in and got a good result and a good grid position for race two.

James had the better of the starts to the weekend and had some really good pace but in race one he got knocked off and that ruined him for race two, it was always going to be tough coming from 14th to anywhere. It’s still some good points in eight but we’re disappointed for James.”

We still keep our 100% podium record in every event which we’re really pleased with. We’ve got some improvements to make to the machines before Brands so hopefully we’ll have both riders in a stronger position.”



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