Camier enjoys power boost but Ellison runs him close Round three 24/25 May Donington Park ViSK British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli Leon Camier, the leader of the ViSK British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli, was the dominant force of free practice ahead of the Holiday Monday third round at Donington Park in which he will be enjoying the added power of the new engine fitted to his Airwaves Yamaha. “Things are going better than I expected. Every time we go out, the bike is getting better and better,” said Camier after his lap of 1m 31.977secs, an average speed of 97.85mph, around the 2.5 mile Leicestershire Grand Prix circuit. Camier, the winner of the previous three races, is aiming to extend the 11 points advantage he holds over the Worx Crescent Suzuki rider Sylvain Guintoli. “The new engines are making a real difference, there is a lot more power, though one or two still fractionally better than us on top speed,” added Camier after out-running his team-mate James Ellison by 0.354secs. Ellison missed much of the morning session with a technical problem, but was well on the pace next time out: “That’s been my best of the season so far. The engine is real good and once we’ve dialled in the chassis I’ll be really happy. “I’m fairly confident at the moment though we’ve got to do a bit of work on the handling, getting it a bit better but we know what to do, and once we’ve altered the geometry of the bike we will be fine,” added Ellison. Simon Andrews ran third on the MSS Colchester Kawasaki, in a time of 1m 32.439secs, with Josh Brookes, riding the HM Plant Honda a tenth of a second down. Chris Walker, four times the runner-up in the title chase, was fifth fastest on the Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha, 1m 32.520secs, ahead of Glen Richards, on the second HM Plant Honda while Frenchman Guintoli, with a best lap in 1m 32.631secs, was seventh on the leaderboard. Hydrex Honda rider Stuart Easton, John Laverty, riding the Buildbase Kawasaki, and Ian Lowry, aboard the Relentless Suzuki, completed the top ten on the leaderboard. Gary Mason, on the Quay Garage Honda, the leader of the Mirror.co.uk Cup ran 14th overall, lapping in 1m 33.649secs, but the fastest in class with his nearest rival Martin Jessopp four places back despite running his Riders Racing Honda 0.027secs down. ViSK British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli Top ten times in free practice 1 L Camier Airwaves Yamaha 1m 31.977s 2 J Ellison Airwaves Yamaha 1.32.334 3 S Andrews MSS Colchester Kawasaki 1.32.439 4 J Brooks (AUS) HM Plant Honda 1.32.504 5 C Walker Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha 1.32.520 6 G Richards (AUS) HM Plant Honda 1.32.538 7 S Guintoli (FRA) Worx Crescent Suzuki 1.32.631 8 S Easton Hydrex Honda 1.32.829 9 J Laverty Buildbase Kawasaki 1.32.857 10 I Lowry Relentless Suzuki 1.33.089 (All riders British except where stated) More, from a press release issued by GSE Racing/Airwaves Yamaha: AIRWAVES YAMAHA ON TOP AT DONINGTON PARK The third round of the British Superbike Championship got underway at Donington Park today where the Airwaves Yamaha pairing of Leon Camier and James Ellison finished the day 1st and 2nd. In the morning’s 50 minute practice session, Leon and James got their first taste of the updated Airwaves Yamaha YZF-R1. Completing a total of 24 laps, Leon, the current Championship leader, finished fastest by 0.720s. Teammate James finished 10th after a technical issue reduced his time out on track. In the second session both riders worked hard to reduce their lap times. Leon’s fastest time, 1:31.977 secured him the top spot once again, coming on lap 11 of an eventual 22. James’ best time, 1:32.334 ensured he finished the day 2nd fastest. Commenting after practice Leon said, “Before this weekend I really wasn’t too sure what to expect or how competitive we would be, but I’m very happy with our progress so far. The new Yamaha engine has made a huge difference and lap by lap we’re improving, which is encouraging. We made a few changes to the chassis between sessions which helped to reduce our times, but we’ll be looking to make more improvements ahead of qualifying tomorrow.” Following practice James commented, “This morning’s session wasn’t great for us as we only completed a handful of laps but I had enough time on track to get a feel for the new engine which is fantastic! The second session went a lot better so I’m a happy man. I’m struggling slightly in the middle-section so we’ll be looking at ways to improve and get the chassis dialled in to get us closer to the top spot tomorrow.” Qualifying for the third round of the British Superbike Championship commences tomorrow, Sunday 24th May at 1515.