Camier and Ellison take the victories Round nine Holiday Monday 31 August Cadwell Park MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli Leon Camier comfortably won the opening race of the ninth round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli at Cadwell Park to tighten his grip in the title stakes. He crossed the line first next time out only to be denied victory for a flag infringement, with the race awarded to his Airwaves Yamaha team-mate James Ellison. The problem for Camier began on the penultimate lap of the second race at the Lincolnshire circuit. He had opened up a lead of some six seconds, but race officials became concerned that his bike was emitting smoke. This was closely monitored and swiftly black and orange flags were displayed around the Lincolnshire circuit requiring Camier to pull off immediately. Instead, Camier continued, taking the chequered flag, only to be told that he had been excluded from the victory for breaking the rules, something that his team manager Colin Wright accepted: “The rules are clear, the black and orange flag was shown for his and the other riders’ safety he should have stopped. It is unfortunate but to be fair everyone is doing everything to stick to the rules but it is a real shame for Leon.” The victory was awarded to Ellison, his third of the season, as he led the Hydrex Honda of Stuart Easton home by some four seconds with the determined Simon Andrews of the Confused.com Kawasaki taking third place from his team-mate Julien da Costa. John Laverty took fifth for Buildbase Kawasaki ahead of Chris Walker on the Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha with Sylvain Guintoli seventh on the Worx Crescent Suzuki, ahead of Karl Harris, Gary Mason, who was completing a Mirror.co.uk Cup daily double as he finished ahead of fellow Cup rider Tommy Bridewell. Earlier, Camier, starting from his seventh pole had overcome the fast starting Easton to take the lead on third lap, and then powered to his 15th victory of a dominant campaign. “It is all going to plan, the bike is working so well,” said Camier after that winning ride.”Now we have to keep it all going, keep focussed and make sure that the championship is done. “On a personal note it was so good to come back and win, finally putting to rest memories of the bad crash I had here two years ago,” added Camier who crossed the line some seven seconds ahead of the Scot with Ellison third from Ian Lowry on the Relentless Suzuki. Andrews snatched fifth on the final lap from da Costa. Karl Muggeridge took seventh for HM Plant Honda ahead of Guintoli, Laverty and the hard riding Quay Garage rider Gary Mason. Bridewell again took second in the Cup stakes. By the end of the day, Camier left the circuit with a sizeable 399.5-302 points advantage over Ellison with three rounds and seven races remaining, the next of which are at Croft over the weekend of 11/12/13 September. Results round nine Race one 18 laps 1 L Camier Airwaves Yamaha 26m 38.546 2 S Easton Hydrex Honda 26m 45.930 3 J Ellison Airwaves Yamaha 26m 46.197 4 I Lowry Relentless Suzuki 26m 46.679 5 S Andrews Confused.com Kawasaki 26m 56.339 6 J da Costa Confused.com Kawasaki 26m 56.672 7 K Muggeridge HM Plant Honda 27m 03.944 8 S Guintoli Worx Crescent Suzuki 27m 04.068 9 J Laverty Buildbase Kawasaki 27m 04.525 10 G Mason Quay Garage Honda 27m 07.306 Race two 18 laps 1 J Ellison Airwaves Yamaha 28m 02.679 2 S Easton Hydrex Honda 28m 06.778 3 S Andrews Confused.com Kawasaki 28m 07.263 4 J da Costa Confused.com Kawasaki 28m 08.114 5 J Laverty Buildbase Kawasaki 28m 09.522 6 C Walker Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha 28m 15.515 7 S Guintoli Worx Crescent Suzuki 28m 15.918 8 K Harris Hydrex Honda 28m 17.512 9 G Mason Quay Garage Honda 28m17.779 10 T Bridewell Team NB Suzuki 28m 19.363 Championship standings 1 L Camier 399.5 2 J Ellison 302 3 S Easton 258 4 K Harris 120.5 5 S Andrews 119.5 More, from a press release issued by John McGuinness’ publicist: McGuinness scorches to second at Cadwell Morecambe’s John McGuinness put in a brilliant ride on Bank Holiday Monday when he took his Padgetts Honda to second place in round 9 of the Metzeler National 1000cc Superstock Championship, his best finish of the short circuit season. The podium finish, his fourth of the year, saw him consolidate his fourth place overall in the Championship table whilst he also closed the gap to third placed Richard Cooper. Riding at one of his favourite circuits, John was on the pace all weekend on the Superstock machine and he ended qualifying in second place, just 0.04s behind the dominant Alastair Seeley. A solid start in the race saw him settle into fourth place but he was soon promoted to third after teammate Steve Brogan crashed out at the hairpin on the first lap. Sitting behind second placed Adam Jenkinson for the first part of the race, John eased by at half-race distance and once he had clear track in front of him, he was able to pull away from his fellow Honda rider. At the end of the 15 laps, John was 5 seconds adrift of new champion Seeley but a similar distance ahead of Jenkinson and it was another excellent podium for the former British Champion. In what was a busy weekend for John, he also deputised for Josh Brookes on the HM Plant Honda in the premier British Superbike class. Having qualified in a fine 11th place, just 0.07s shy of the top ten, John took a solid 12th in the first 18-lap race for four hard earned championship points. A good start in the second saw him occupy ninth but after the intervention of the pace car, he out-braked himself at Park Corner, running on to the grass and he pulled in to retire a couple of laps later. Speaking later John said: “I’m well chuffed with the podium in the Superstock race and I keep proving to people that I’m a strong Championship runner. Some people would have said it’s just an extra ride on top of my road race commitments but it’s anything but that and it’s very important to me so to keep racking up the podiums is very pleasing. I made a slight mistake on the first lap and dropped back to 4th and it took me a while to get by Adam so if it hadn’t been for that, I might have been able to run the pace of Seeley. Second is still a great result for me and fair play to Alastair, with nine wins from nine he deserves the title!” “I enjoyed my Superbike outings and I’ve been a bit hard on myself about how I did over the course of the weekend. I was agonisingly close to the top ten in qualifying but had a solid ride in the first race for 12th so it was a bit disappointing to run off in the second. I got a huge slipstream and arrived for the corner way too quick and went even quicker when I went on the grass! It’s not easy joining a series at round 9 but I was running a similar pace to that of the 6th-10th placed riders so I shouldn’t be too hard with myself.” John’s next outing comes in two weeks time with round 10 of the Metzeler National 1000cc Superstock Championship taking place at Croft from September 11-13. More, from a press release issued by GSE Racing/Airwaves Yamaha: AIRWAVES YAMAHA DOUBLE UP Leon Camier and James Ellison scored a win apiece at Cadwell Park today. Championship leader Leon won the opening Race of the day with James finishing 3rd. James then climbed to the top of the podium in Race Two after Leon was disqualified on the final lap. Pole-sitter Leon dropped a couple of places at the start of Race One. After a brief battle for 2nd, he took the lead on lap 4 as James went into the final podium spot. James then became involved in a three-way battled for 2nd, but was unable to find a way past the Honda of Stuart Easton by the chequered flag. Leon remained unchallenged to take his 15th win of the season by over 7 seconds. Leon once again fell back into 3rd at the start of Race Two, but soon hit the front. James slotted in behind his teammate. The Airwaves Yamaha team looked set for their 7th one-two of the season when Leon was disqualified from the race for contravening the Black and Orange flag rule. James was therefore awarded with his 3rd win of the season. After Race Two, James said, “I was a little bit disappointed with the end result of Race One. It was just so difficult to pass Stuart Easton. I knew that in Race Two I would have to pass him straight away, else I’d get held back again. I put everything into the move to pass him, and prayed that the bike would turn in, which thankfully it did. I then tried to chase down Leon. I wanted to see where he was quicker than me, and see what I could learn. I feel sorry for Leon being disqualified from the race. He has ridden superbly all season, and in particular this weekend. But I’m pleased that I managed to close the gap to him in the Championship and that the win stayed within the Airwaves Yamaha team.” On the day’s events Leon said, “It felt really good to stand on the top step in Race One, especially after having so much bad luck here in the past. But of course I’m really disappointed about being disqualified from Race Two. I felt more comfortable on the bike, my lap times were better, and everything seemed to be going exactly to plan. Unfortunately I misinterpreted the rules; it’s just one of those things. I’m really pleased for James and for Airwaves Yamaha. At least it was another double win for the team. I can’t wait to get to Croft now.” More, from another press release issued by GSE Racing/Airwaves Yamaha: CHAPTER CLOSED ON CAMIER DISQUALIFICATION Airwaves Yamaha has today (Tuesday 1st September 2009) released further details regarding the disqualification of its rider Leon Camier from Race Two at Cadwell Park on Bank Holiday Monday. On the 18th and final lap, race leader Leon was shown the black and orange flag as smoke was seen to come from his bike. Mistakenly believing he had until the end of the lap to come in to the pits, Leon continued on to take the chequered flag. The Championship leader was disqualified for the infringement and his teammate James Ellison, who was in 2nd, awarded the win. After a thorough inspection, it has since been discovered that the oil cooler of Leon’s bike had rubbed on the exhaust, causing smoke. An incident not experienced by the Airwaves Yamaha team before. On the Race Two incident, Team Manager Colin Wright said, “I’d like to apologise to Leon for the error we made at Cadwell Park on Monday. We have found that the oil cooler had made contact with the exhaust, causing a small oil leak, and this was responsible for the smoke that was visible for all to see. Had this error not occurred, Leon would now be in a position where he would only need 4.5 points in the remaining rounds to secure the championship for Airwaves Yamaha. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Leon for immediately showing dignity and professionalism when he learned of his disqualification from the results. “There has been comment made that a lack of competition has been behind Leon’s success this year. But comparing his times from Race One to those of 2008 winner Leon Haslam, we can see that he still would have won by 3.5 seconds. He’s had an outstanding season so far.” On the decision to exclude Leon from the race, Colin said, “The marshals and Race Director absolutely made the right call regarding the black and orange flag, as this was the only way that Leon would be made aware of a problem. As Leon did not leave the circuit immediately he was disqualified from the results. Unfortunately for us, the Race Director had to take this action exactly as the rules state. Had the oil leak been worse, Leon could have crashed and would almost certainly have caused others to fall on the oil.” Praising the performance of the team and the YZF-R1, Colin continued, “GSE Racing has enjoyed much success over the years and we are extremely proud of our exemplary race finish record. I honestly cannot remember the last time we experienced a non-finish due to mechanical problems. This year has so far been tremendous, James and Leon are the only two riders in the championship to have finished in every race, and we will be working hard to continue this through to the last round.”