Ellison short of track time in Cartagena

JG Speedfit Kawasaki ‘s James Ellison only completed a few laps with the new ZX-10R on the opening day of the BSB test at Cartagena.

The squad didn’t arrive at the Spanish venue until midnight on Wednesday, forcing them to sit out the opening session on Thursday morning. Red flags and a broken oil pipe in the final session limited the Lancaster man’s track time but it was enough to convince him the team has overcome the front end issue he’d encountered in the opening tests at Jerez and Aragon in January.

“Yeah, we’ve had a little bit of an issue with a strange feeling on the front end at the first test.” Ellison confirmed. “The other boys weren’t really having it. Peter Hickman didn’t have the issue but I had it all the time so we were a bit worried about what it was. The team have done a lot of work on the bike, a lot of research, and changed a couple of things, it seems to have got rid of it so we can come here and really get testing now”.

There had been rumours that the World Superbike squad had experienced a similar front end problem with the new version of the ZX-10R but Ellison explained 
“I haven’t talked to Tom (Sykes) or Johnny (Rea) about it. It could be something else but Johnny seems to be going alright with a double last weekend! We haven’t changed any components, it was just the way we had the bike set up. We need to use the next few days to get a base setting which we haven’t got yet.” he said with three days left in Spain.

“Cartagena isn’t really like anything we use in BSB so it isn’t that great for sorting set up. The surface is very abrasive and there is a lot of high corner speed, BSB is more stop-start. But it does give you a chance to see roughly where you are. The bike is new, I feel really comfortable on it and it feels quick. But sometimes you go out there and you think you are on fire and you come in and you’re three seconds off the pace!”