JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison was unsure coming into today’s MCE British Superbike free practice sessions at Oulton Park just how many laps he would be able to put down, as he’s still nursing a painful broken wrist. But he battled through the pain barrier to set a respectable time which was well inside the top twenty, in thirteenth.
The next obstacle in the way for the Cumbrian is purely a confidence issue. He wants to brake later going into the corners and get back to being comfortable on the ZX-10R, and once he gets over this issue he can push on and try and get as far up the grid as possible during qualifying.
The rider is already in Showdown contention, and his team do have a contingency plan in place if the pain gets worse. If he bags some solid points in race one and other results go their way they always have the option to sit out the two races on Sunday during this weekend’s triple-header at the Cheshire track, but ultimately the aim for Ellison is to stay within the top six in the overall standings.
“I am heavily strapped up and I am trying to restrict the movement a bit and with all the breaking forces any little jerk is not strong enough to hold it - so I am having to strap it in as much as I can to stop any further injury. I can feel the pain up my arm when I brake and you are not in control of the pain and at the minute I need to build up my confidence with the injury,” said Ellison, speaking to bikesportnews.com at the circuit.
“We are point nine off the pace, and we don’t need to be that far up. I didn’t know whether I was going to get here and do one lap on Friday and call it a day, and the time we did was quite respectable.
“Now we know I can withstand a few laps, we will keep laps to a minimum tomorrow. The bike feels good - I really need to get more confident with the injury and get through qualifying and get as high up the grid as I can, as I don’t think I will be able to pass many people so I need to get up in qualifying and in the race to get as many points as I can.
“The main aim is the Showdown, and if we go out in race one and get a decent position and the injury is getting painful then we can sit out both races, and as long as Dan Linfoot hasn’t got any decent points in race one, then I think we should be quite safe.”
