JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s James Ellison will start from second on the grid for the first MCE British Superbike race, and even though he put his ZX-10R on the front row at Oulton Park he felt that he made a ‘bad’ choice with the tyres in the final qualifying session.
The Kendal rider did go up to provisional pole during Q3 only to be out-paced by his team-mate Leon Haslam at the flag. But there were only 0.4s separating the pair and after a ‘tough’ day out on track Ellison is happy with the progress of the Kawasaki.
But the JG Speedfit rider wished that he used a new rear tyre at the start of the final session, like he did in Q1 and Q2. He reused the tyre from the second session in Q3 and it went well on the first lap and he went fastest, but the tyre ‘had gone’ after that lap.
“For me this is a local race and I get a good fan base here. It was tough out there and it was greasy as anything,” said Ellison, speaking at the track today.
“Obviously the Pirelli tyres worked really well, but I just made a bad choice in the third qualifying and I used a new rear in the first one, and a new rear in the second one, and it was taking a while for me to come in because of the temperature.
“So I came in early on the second one so that I could reuse that tyre for the third session, and it worked and I went out and went quickest straight away and then pushed for another lap and the tyre had gone.
“Maybe it was too hot as the track was drying out a little bit so it was a bad call on my part and we could have gone quicker on a new one but it is what it is. Just a bit disappointed to cross the line with P1 and I was preparing my speech on the way round and then I was P2. It is great to have both the JG Speedfit Kawasaki boys up here.”
