Swan Honda lead the way at Thruxton
Swan Honda's James Ellison got off to a flying start at Thruxton today (Friday) to set the pace in the opening free practice sessions ahead of the second round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship this weekend.
Ellison left it until the final minute of the second practice session to annihilate the fastest time of the session as he set a time of 1m:14.907s, which is just 0.1 seconds off the current lap record set by Gregorio Lavilla in 2006.
Stuart Easton ended the free practice sessions fifth fastest on the second Swan Honda, just 0.818s adrift of team-mate Ellison. Easton had been fourth in the opening session, but is happy with his pace and feels there is more to come from him tomorrow in the Swan Combi Roll for Pole grid decider for Sunday's opening race.
Ellison said: "I am really happy to have finished fastest on a Friday as this hasn't happened for a while so it is a good way for me to start the weekend. We still have some work to do to get the Swan Honda changing direction better but it will only need to be a few tweaks as we did a lot of work this morning in the first session which we really benefitted from. We are already faster than we were last year in the race and to be not that far off record pace on a practice day is an awesome feeling."
Easton said: "Today was a normal day for us to be honest, this morning we just got into the groove and just settled back in to the circuit and the session this afternoon was the one you could read more in to. I was happy with fourth this morning and our time this afternoon was good, but I just didn't get the best from the tyre which was down to me so that is a lesson to learnt for tomorrow. We have a few changes to make to the suspension in the morning and then we will be set for qualifying."
MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship, Thruxton, free practice two:
- James Ellison (Swan Honda) 1m:14.907s
- Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +0.271s
- Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +0.468s
- Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +0.729s
- Stuart Easton (Swan Honda) +0.818s
- Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +1.039s
- Yukio Kagayama (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +1.205s
- Martin Jessopp (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +1.231s
- Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +1.232s
- Gary Mason (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +1.486s
