Ellison the best Brit at Brands Hatch WSBK

James Ellison
By Jentin-Racing.com
August 4 2004

James Ellison and Jentin Racing turned in a truly stunning World Superbike performance at a sun drenched Brands Hatch, with a fifth and sixth in the two races, together with a ninth in the Superpole, making James the best performing Brit in front of a huge home crowd.

The weekend started with problems for the Stroud based British Superbike team, as a stone punctured the radiator after only one lap in the first free practice session. The incident inevitably interrupted the team’s build up for qualifying and Ellison just made it into Superpole with the sixteenth quickest time. He put the problem behind him in the high pressure one lap qualifying run, setting the ninth quickest time as the fastest British rider.

The team’s strong form was set to continue on race-day, with Ellison bringing home the Yamaha YZF-R1 in sixth place in race one, once again as the fastest British rider. This was followed up by a superb fifth place in a two-part second race, after an intense battle for fourth with Chris Walker on the Petronas, which lasted from start to finish.

Team Principals Jon Poole and Bernard Toleman said the enormity of their small privateer team’s achievement against some of the worlds best was still sinking in. “We had some dramas initially but once that was behind us James just got stronger and stronger. He came in after Superpole and said he didn’t think he’d done that well but he was more than three tenths quicker than he had been all weekend and was in fact less than a second off Pole! To then back that up with a sixth and fifth was just sensational. It just shows that given a level playing field, as we had here with the control Pirelli tyres, James on the Jentin Racing Yamaha can be competitive against the world’s best. Our whole team is justifiably over the moon.”

James Ellison said that it had been a perfect weekend all round. “Holing the radiator put us on the back foot but from then on everything went like clockwork. It was a perfect weekend and we achieved everything we set out to do. We’re improving a place each outing in World Superbikes, with a seventh at Silverstone then a sixth and fifth at Brands Hatch. Looking to Assen in a few weeks we’ll be chasing a fourth and hopefully a podium!”

Jentin Racing have little time to savour their stunning performance as they now prepare for a British Superbike test day at Croft later this week, in preparation for the next round of the Championship at the circuit in two weeks time - where the goal is to extend their lead in the Superbike Cup.