Camier extends BSB championship lead
Added on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Camier extends BSB championship lead
Leon Camier extended his lead at the top of the British Superbike championship despite mixed results at Donington Park.
Camier secured his fourth win in a row during race one at Donington yesterday to continue his dominance of the BSB season, aided in no small part by second-placed Sylvain Guintoli’s crash on the sighting lap.
The Airwaves Yamaha rider recovered quickly from a slow start to jump to the front of the field within five laps before leading a processional run to the chequered flag. Teammate James Ellison was behind in second place with Stuart Easton on the Hydrex Honda completing the podium.
Race two was a different story for Camier as an as-yet unexplained technical issue left him stranded at the Melbourne Hairpin, dropping him back to 25th before he eventually got restarted.
The championship leader managed to salvage something from the race, moving up to 12th in the remaining 16 laps to come away with four championship points.
At the front, James Ellison secured his first win for Airwaves Yamaha with Easton and Chris Walker of Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha joining him on the podium.
Speaking after the second race Camier said: “I’ve been suffering from a cold this weekend and not been 100% so the races were tough.
“I didn’t get great starts in either so I knew I had to really push to get to the front. In race one it all went pretty much to plan and so I was really pleased to get another win for Airwaves Yamaha. The second race seemed to be going the same way until the bike stopped. At the moment we’re not too sure what happened so we’ll have to look into it, but it’s onwards and upwards from here.”
Teammate Ellison also told of his delight at getting off the mark with his new team.
“Today has been awesome,” he claimed. “It felt fantastic to be on the podium in the first race and to get a one-two for Airwaves Yamaha, but of course the win topped it off. I knew I didn’t have the pace to beat Leon in race one, and I’m sure that if he hadn’t had technical problems he would have been joining me up the front in race two. Having not won in a while, I wasn’t quite sure what to do towards the end, it was really quite hard to keep focused and the adrenalin is still going now. I have to say a massive thank you to everyone at Airwaves Yamaha for all the hard work they have put in. I can’t wait to get to Thruxton for more of the same!”
