at Cadwell as Ellison Withdraws
2008 Bennetts British Superbike Championship Rounds 17 & 18 - Cadwell Park, Lincolnshire24th/25th August
Hydrex Bike Animal Honda riders James Ellison and Guy Martin qualified in sixteenth and seventeenth place respectively following on the historic new F1 style knock-out qualifying at round nine of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship held at Cadwell Park yesterday.
Now segregated into three qualifying sessions, the pair made it into Q2 but couldn't progress any further for various reasons.
Ellison, who has scored in every round of the Championship to date had been previously injured in a training accident and was suffering with torn ligaments in his right wrist meaning he spent a minimal amount of time on the Shaun Muir Racing Honda Fireblade and despite bravely battling on, had to settle for sixteenth at the end of the session.
Meanwhile Guy Martin showed a resurgence of short circuit form to qualify for Q2 and at one point was running on the verges of the final ten Q1 positions, but by the end of the session he had slipped to seventeenth and will line up on the sixth row of the grid.
However, Ellison will take no further part in the weekend's proceedings as he has been declared unfit to race so will now concentrate on getting fit for the next round at Croft in three week's time.
Ellison's withdrawal now means that Martin is left to uphold honour whereby the rider from nearby Kirmington is hoping to impress at his local circuit.
In the Metzeler Superstock 1000cc category, Kieran Clarke qualified 21st for tomorrow's race whereby he will be looking to add to his points tally from his last two outings.
James Ellison: "I injured my hand when I was training in Spain last week and whereas I thought it would be OK, having ridden the bike around a demanding track as Cadwell, it's proving to be a bit of a problem and it's just getting worse and worse. I wanted to get into the top ten and then I could have made a decision tomorrow. But really the only way I can get ready for Croft is by resting it and hopefully it should be healed in around 7 to 10 days. I have to think about the rest of the season, and I'm chasing third in the Championship so I don't really want to miss a round, it's just really disappointing. The guys in the team have worked so hard and I'm just disappointed for them too."
Guy Martin: "The weather hasn't helped the job, I've still got loads of harvesting to do and my combine blew up last night! I'm happy on the bike side of things though. We're at the point where we're making just a little change each time and we're getting faster each time so it's building my confidence up with the team and with the bike. We're finding that the settings are more like a TT bike now. I don't think we'd be cheeky in asking for a couple of top ten places tomorrow, that would be mint."
Shaun Muir (Team Owner): "We have taken the decision to withdraw James so he won't be riding tomorrow so I'm just disappointed really, especially for the team who have all worked so hard. BSB is our priority so we need to consider the bigger picture and get James back up to full fitness in time for Croft. We need Guy to pull a rabbit out of the bag for us now so we're looking for him to score a good result for us, like we are Kieran in the Superstock race."
The first of the two 18-lap Bennetts British Superbike races gets underway at 1.45pm on Sunday with the second at 4.30pm. The Metzeler Superstock 1000 race is scheduled for 5.20pm. The British Eurosport 2 live broadcast window is 1.30pm to 6.30pm.
Superbike Qualifying1, Tom Sykes (Suzuki) 1m27.495s, 2, Cal Crutchlow (Honda) 1m27.716s, 3, Shane Byrne (Ducati) 1m27.870s, 4, Leon Haslam (Honda) 1m27.917s, 5, Leon Camier (Ducati) 1m28.428s, 6, Michael Rutter (Ducati) 1m28.502s, 7, Karl Harris (Yamaha) 1m28.844s, 8, Atsushi Watanabe (Suzuki) 1m28.860s, 9, Simon Andrews (Yamaha) 1m29.000, 10, Michael Laverty (Suzuki) 1m29.228s. 16, James Ellison (Hydrex Bike Animal Honda) 1m30.514s, 17, Guy Martin (Hydrex Bike Animal Honda) 1m30.520s.
Round 2 - 18th/20th April - Thruxton, HantsRound 3 - 3rd/5th May - Oulton Park, CheshireRound 1 - 10th/11th May - Brands Hatch GP, KentRound 4 - 24th/26th May - Donington Park, LeicsRound 5 - 13th/15th June - Snetterton, NorfolkRound 6 - 27th/29th June - Mallory ParkRound 7 - 18th/20th July - Oulton Park, CheshireRound 8 - 8th/10th August - Knockhill, FifeRound 9 - 23rd/25th August - Cadwell Park, LincsRound 10 - 12th/14th September - Croft, North YorkshireRound 11 - 26th/28th September, Silverstone, NorthantsRound 12 - 10th/12th October - Brands Hatch Indy, Kent