The GBmoto prepared JG Speedfit Kawasaki team took an emotional debut victory at Donington Park today with James Ellison, before an unfortunate technical problem ahead of race two forced him to start from the back of the grid. James Westmoreland suffered with mechanical problems throughout race day, a legacy of a practice crash, seeing him retire from both races.
Despite the cold weather, dry track time on the opening day of practice enabled both James Ellison and James ‘Westy’ Westmoreland to dial in their Kawasaki ZX-10R machines to the 2.4 mile Donington Park circuit. With conditions improving for qualifying, Ellison narrowly missed out on taking pole by just 0.029s. Despite suffering from some niggling problems during qualifying, a result of crashing in free practice three, Westy was still able to secure 12th place on the grid for the opening race.
By virtue of their lap times in the opening race, both Ellison and Westy again lined up in second and 12th respectively for the second outing. However as Ellison prepared to head out to the grid, a simple fault with the battery saw the team forced to replace it, meaning James was unable to take his position and had to start from the back of the grid. A gutsy ride through the large field saw him still able to secure 12th at the checkered flag but further mechanical gremlins for Westy meant he again had to retire from the race.
James Ellison said, “It’s certainly been a mix of highs and lows today, but to be walking away having taken GBmoto and JG Speedfit’s first ever BSB win is amazing. The team really deserve it too, so a big thanks to them for their support – especially Mark Smith-Halvorsen who stuck by me last year through the accident.
It’s so frustrating to have missed the opportunity to challenge for a second win in race two though, the bike starts on a slave battery but every time we removed it the bike would die. It meant we had to replace it, but that requires us removing the fairings, seat and tank from the machine and despite the whole garage helping out, we just couldn’t do it time. Starting from the back wasn’t ideal, particularly with the size of the grid, and fighting through just takes time. We still scored points though so we can’t be too disappointed.”
A disappointed James Westmoreland said, “Unfortunately we were just unable to fix the problem with the bike in between races today and it is frustrating to be leaving the opening round with no points. The guys in the garage have been incredible though, even swapping engines between race one and two but no matter what we tried, we just couldn’t solve the problem so it’s pretty confusing.
It’s not been an ideal start but the team are already working hard on finding and solving the problems we’ve suffered and I’m confident that we’ll be back at Brands ready to challenge at the front.”
On the other side of the garage, we just couldn’t seem to cure a problem on James Westmoreland’s bike following his crash in free practice three. I’m bitterly disappointed for him as unfortunately, we as a team were unable to provide him with the tools for the job and we’re 100% focused on ensuring he has them for Brands Hatch.”
MCE British Superbike Calendar 2015
4/5/6 April |
Donington Park GP (Leicestershire) |
17/18/19 April |
Brands Hatch Indy (Kent) |
2/3/4 May |
Oulton Park International (Cheshire) |
19/20/21 June |
Snetterton 300 (Norfolk) |
3/4/5 July |
Knockhill (Fife) |
17/18/19 July |
Brands Hatch GP (Kent) |
31 July – 1/2 August |
Thruxton (Hampshire) |
21/22/23 August |
Cadwell Park (Lincolnshire) |
4/5/6 September |
Oulton Park International (Cheshire) |
18/19/20 September |
TT Circuit Assen (The Netherlands) |
2/3/4 October |
Silverstone GP (Northamptonshire) |
16/17/18 October |
Brands Hatch GP (Kent) |