Fortune favours Airwaves Yamaha at Mallory Park
Added on Sunday, July 19th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Fortune favours Airwaves Yamaha at Mallory Park
Airwaves Yamaha secured yet another double victory in the British Superbike championship but Lady Luck was shining down on them in an eventful weekend at Mallory Park.
James Ellison took took a dramatic opening victory in a race one that was red-flagged with seven laps to go follow a crash which involved all six leading riders whilst Leon Camier was declared race winner after 15 laps after race two was halted and then postponed on safety grounds due to the sodden Mallory Park circuit.
Both Camier and Ellison were the beneficiaries of a Josh Brookes crash at the hairpin in the dying stages of race one which took out then race leader Simon Andrews and also collected Chris Walker, Tommy Hill, Karl Harris and John Laverty to hand Ellison victory in and offer his Airwaves Yamaha teammate and championship leader Camier a huge lifeline .
Camier was shunted down to a lowly 23rd position after behind caught in the middle of a first lap crash and, after working his way back up to 8th position, was able to avoid the dramatic crash in the closing stages to take a fortuitous second place.
That crash, having occurred after the race had passed the two thirds mark, meant that the race was declared over with the remaining riders being classified at the point when the red flags were shown, giving Airwaves Yamaha their 12th win from 12 races and Ellison his second of the season.
Graeme Gowland also benefitted from the pile-up to take his first podium of the season, with Michael Rutter, on the SMT Honda for the first time this season, taking fourth.
Race two appeared to take a familiar pattern as Camier quickly worked his way to the front of the pack before the heaven’s opened to make the Leicestershire circuit un-rideable.
After being red-flagged, race stewards declared the result as final with riders earning half championship points for race two.
Ellison secured second place with early leader Chris Walker having to settle for third on the Motorpoint Henderson Yamaha.
