It was a high-speed demonstration weekend for James Ellison and the JG Speedfit Kawasaki team at Brands Hatch, as they took their first ever MCE British Superbike Championship ‘double’ at the teams ‘home’ circuit.    

After securing pole position yesterday with an incredible run of three laps under the existing Brands Hatch Indy lap record, James Ellison followed it up by topping the timesheets in morning warm up. Overnight changes for James ‘Westy’ Westmoreland gave him a stronger feeling from his Kawasaki ZX-10R machine, pushing him up the timesheets.

Utilising his pole position, Ellison launched into the lead and had already pulled a gap over the pursuing pack by the time they reached Druids. Despite an early pace car deployment closing the gap, Ellison controlled the race from the front, breaking the lap record in the process, to steadily build a lead of over two seconds. Unfortunately, another incident saw the pace car redeployed and Ellison have to once again work to build the lead over the final four laps – crossing the line 1.368s ahead of Byrne. Having finally found a setting he was comfortable with, Westy was denied a chance to fight for a good points haul after getting caught up in several incidents throughout the race which halted his progress, leaving him in 17th at the line.

By virtue of their fastest laps in the opening race, Ellison again started from pole with Westy in 20th. Grabbing the holeshot he once more set about controlling it from the front, breaking his own lap record from earlier with an incredible 45.212s lap. Building up an impressive 3.4s lead over the pursuing pack he looked set to be another easy win, but a pace car deployment late in the race saw his lead negated. Staying calm, he set about gapping second place to cross the line - securing his and the JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s team first ever double win. Suffering with his grid position around the tight and twisty track, Westy was caught in a large pack of riders mid-field, again crossing the line in 17th.

The team will now move to Oulton Park later this week for a one day test at the circuit, before round three of the MCE British Superbike Championship there on May 2-4.

After dominating with pole position, two lap records and two wins James Ellison said,

“It’s not been a bad weekend really, has it! This is the best I’ve ever done and to secure mine and the team’s first ever double victory is mega. I don’t want to jinx it, but I’ve had some bad luck over the years and hopefully this is our year. 

We’ve improved the bike massively over winter, running through a lot of stuff during testing, and it’s really paid off with the bike feeling perfect this weekend. It was frustrating to have the pace car come out in both races as it disrupted my rhythm slightly, but to leave Brands having won three of the first four races this year is amazing!”
Looking to build on what he learnt at Brands Hatch, James Westmoreland “Firstly, a huge congrats to James and the team – he’s been unbeatable all weekend so full credit to him. Obviously two non-point scoring rides is not where I or the team should be, but we can take positives with the weekend. We found something in warm up that felt particularly good but with the grid full of world class riders, you can’t come from 20th on the grid and expect to do something around this circuit.

The Oulton test is going to be important for us and the team have worked so hard all weekend, and we can head there with a good setting to build on.”

JG Speedfit Kawasaki Team Manager Mike Kane said,