James Ellison is under no illusions that it’s going to be easy for him and the Anvil Hire TAG Yamaha team at Brands Hatch this weekend, despite holding the lap record around the Indy Circuit.
Ellison heads to one of his favourite tracks in seventh spot in the standings after a solid start to the season at Donington Park. The Cumbrian rider was battling towards the front of the pack in the opening race of the year and ended up taking the final podium spot. Unfortunately, Ellison could not repeat this in race two – crashing out of proceedings on lap 10.
Speaking about the opening round, Ellison admitted that he was quite surprised by the performance of his Yamaha. He said:
“I was pleasantly surprised at Donington Park because we still had some work to do to make it into a race winning bike. I was happy running at the front, but I didn’t think we had a winning bike as of then, turns out we did. Although we didn’t win the race it proved it wasn’t far away at all, we still have some development work to complete, so we’re only going to keep moving forward.”
Despite holding the lap record around the 1.2 mile circuit, Ellison knows that he and the team need to manage the expectations. He explained:
“I do go well at Brands Hatch Indy, and the only issue with that is expectations are really high, so if we don’t win or set a lap record then people are disappointed. We are heading into this weekend knowing we still have work to do and must focus on making the bike stronger than it was at Donington. We’re under no illusions that it’s going to be easy just because I hold the lap record or that it’s a good circuit for me and the bike is working well at the minute.
“The aim is to win races, my expectations aren’t too high but I’m confident it’s going to be a good weekend. The goal is to win races, that’s always the goal and my main focus. We’ll know a lot more after FP1, but I’m heading there confident and very excited.”
This weekend’s races are scheduled to take place on Sunday afternoon (April 15). Race one is due to begin at 13:30, with the second race scheduled to get underway at 16:30.
