BSB Brands: Ellison buoyed by fast pace on old rubber

James Ellison is confident with his pace after the opening day of practice for the second round of the MCE British Superbike Championship, finishing this afternoon’s Free Practice 2 session quickest of the pack.

Spending most of the opening session of the day in and out of the pits attempting to cure a brake problem, the Cumbrian was finally able to get some fast laps in at the end of the day, finishing at almost-lap record pace despite cool track conditions.

“I had a problem at Donington with the front brake lever pushing forwards, but I was able to fix it on the straights with the adjuster. But there’s no room here to do that – I had to try and do it going out of Paddock Hill Bend! But thankfully the guys from Brembo came up and made a small change that fixed it right away.

“In the second session, I tried about four different shocks before I found a setting I really liked, by taking the parts I liked form all of them and putting it together as a package. My lap time was the fastest I’ve ever been round here in though, and even when we stuck in new tyres I didn’t go any faster – so I’m feeling confident!”

Ellison was only 0.02 ahead of former champion Ryuichi Kiyonari, while Josh Brookes rouned out the provisional front row of the grid as he continues to develop the Milwaukee Yamaha.

Local boy Danny Buchan was fourth, continuing his good run of form in practice and qualifying, and ahead of the PBM Kawasaki duo of Shane Byrne and Stuart Easton.