Swan Honda’s James Ellison put in an impressive performance in the opening MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship race of the weekend at Snetterton to move from 22nd on the grid through to seventh, as team-mate Stuart Easton was forced to retire.

Ellison put in a determined performance to work his way up through the field and on the opening lap he was running eleventh and by the fourth lap he was inside the top ten in ninth. He then passed Simon Andrews and Chris Walker to move seventh and is now feeling confident ahead of the two races tomorrow, where he will start from fifth on the grid for the next race tomorrow.

Ellison said:

“The first lap I knew I had to make up places from the last row of the grid, so I knew the start was going to be critical. On the first start I went for the inside line into Riches which is what everyone did, so on the restart I thought I would try the outside which meant I made up several places. Of course the further you move up the field, the harder it gets to pass and so I was really happy to finish seventh. We managed to make some tweaks since yesterday that put us back where we need to be, which is encouraging for the races tomorrow when we start further up the grid. I am happy to be back up there and I think we can expect even better tomorrow.”

Easton said:

“It was another disappointing day for me and in the race I had a cam shaft sensor failure, which I felt straight away and I had no option but to pull in. I think that it has rounded out two bad days for me, so tomorrow I want to turn that around. It had been getting better for me up until the race before we had the problems so I am hoping that all my bad luck is over now, especially as the Swan Honda team are working so hard. I will be back tomorrow, that’s for sure.”