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BSB 2014 Round 12

Maxxis-sponsored GBmoto Racing concluded the 2014 British Superbike Championship at Brands Hatch yesterday. Read our report from Brands to see how the team got on...

After claiming his and the team’s debut pole position on Saturday, James Ellison continued his incredible fitness comeback with a pair of second places, cementing his position as a genuine title contender next season. Fan favourite Chris ‘Stalker’ Walker bounced back from a DNF to take another top ten finish.

After mixed weather conditions on Saturday, the final two races of the 2014 MCE British Superbike Championship saw the Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki duo of James Ellison and Chris ‘Stalker’ Walker take to the Brands Hatch circuit in warm and sunny conditions.

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The opening race saw James start from the second row in sixth position while Chris was two rows back in eleventh. Enjoying a great start, James ran fourth into the opening corner before working his way up to second. Embroiled in a seven rider dice for the lead, he continued to push with the front runners, eventually securing second at the flag. After a fighting start from Stalker, he was involved in a multi-rider battle for tenth place however a clutch problem saw him forced to retire on lap ten.

By virtue of their fastest laps in the second race, James started the final race of the year from fourth on the grid with Chris back in 16th. Once again enjoying a good start, James entered a race long dice with 2014 Champion Shane Byrne but was denied a final challenge with the red flag being deployed on lap 18. Despite his lowly starting position, Chris took a traditional Stalker start to work his way through the field, finishing tenth.

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Taking another double podium, James Ellison said “There’s always so much pressure coming into the final round to perform well so I’m chuffed to bits to be challenging for the lead and to finish with two podiums. It’s a massive boost for me and for the team to go into the winter with this kind of success so I’m really confident that next year we can be challenging for the title.

I just want to thank the whole GBmoto team, it’s been an incredible year and they’ve all worked so hard so it was really great to be rewarding them with two podiums today.”  

Chris Walker said, “Obviously the first race today was a big disappointment, we just had a small issue with the clutch which meant that our race was over. The second race however was much better but unfortunately we were limited slightly with our grid position.

I got a much better start and was able to start picking riders off and work my way through the field but it was just a shame the pace car came out when it did as it kind of halted our charge a bit!”

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Lloyds British GBmoto Kawasaki Team Principal Mark Smith-Halvorsen said, “2014 has been a massive step forward for GBmoto. It was our first year with Kawasaki and although our final standings are not quite what we expected, the pace and form that we’ve shown throughout the year has proved exactly what we can do. We can now move into the winter proud of what we’ve achieved and I have high expectations for next year.

This weekend has been really positive, we struggled a bit yesterday in the wet but our pace in the dry, with James in particular, has been fantastic. To finish the year with another pair of podium places was perfect and although it’s a shame that first win eluded us, I think had that second race run its course then we could certainly have challenged for the top step!”

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Photos: Tim Keeton, Impact Images