Milwaukee Yamaha's James Ellison has had two test sessions since the last MCE British Superbike round at Thruxton and says he is a little further ahead with his R1 now than when they left the Hampshire circuit.

The former MotoGP CRT rider has some large boots to fill at Oulton this weekend as his team, in its Swan guise, have been dominant there over the past couple of seasons but Ellison knows his way around the place and has already collected two podiums from four races.

“We have had two good podium finishes from the first four races, but at the same time I was disappointed with the first races at Brands Hatch and Thruxton - hopefully that is my bad luck for the season done now! We had a test at Cadwell Park after Thruxton and that went really well and we made some more steps in the right direction," said Ellison.

"Oulton Park has traditionally been a good circuit for the team and it should be a good track for the Yamaha. We had a few laps at Oulton Park too, not as many as we would have liked, but enough to give us some more data so we can start free practice a bit ahead of where we would have been without it. We obviously want to close the gap in the points and put Milwaukee Yamaha back on the podium so hopefully we can achieve it at Oulton Park.”