Not much luck for Josh in Magny Cours

Editorial Department • Published 6 Oct 2011 16:00 0 Comments

It proved to be another frustrating weekend for Josh Elliott in Magny Cours as he finished 16th at the penultimate round of European Superstock 600 championship.

Josh hasd missed the last round in Italy due to budget constraints and was keen to be competing at the top end but it was to be one of those weekend when the only luck he found was bad luck.

He commented after the race: "It was an extremely hard weekend but despite our troubles we were unfortunate not to come away with any points. We made changes to the bike before the race which improved it in certain areas and after a hectic first few laps I was able to maintain good lap times throughout the race. I have two weeks now until the last round at Portimao, where I will be giving it my best shot."

Given his lowly grid position, the team gambled on a different gearing and suspension/geometry set up for the race.

The race start was a bit manic so far back on the grid and the usual barging went on in the first lap.

Elliott made up quite a few places in the first few corners but another rider fell at the hairpin and stood up in the middle of the track forcing him to virtually stop to take evasive action, losing many places. He managed to make some back but on lap two a wildcard rider missed a gear and Elliott was unable to avoid colliding with him. He just managed to stay on his bike, but again this lost him time.

Eventually he settled into the race and started to run top ten times despite being so far back. Quite a few riders crashed out and Elliott made some places but despite a late race push just missed out on the points with a 16th place finish.

His technician, Andy Jamison summed up the weekend candidly: "Magny Cours is new circuit for me, but with some very good data to hand, Josh had a pretty good run-out in free practice, and we were all confident that the changes for first qualifying would see us inside the top ten. Unfortunately after a few very promising fast laps, Josh had a small off going round turn 16. We got Josh back out again, but couldn't seem to find the pace again. I opted to stay with this set-up given how promising we started out but Josh could find no confidence with it leaving me again with a dilemma for race set-up. Josh, Jules and I discussed options, and I set the bike up to try and give Josh confidence in the front. I owe a bit of a debt of gratitude to Simon Crafar who popped into the awning to point out a few things he'd noticed with Josh on the bike on circuit, and his advice definitely helped us in the race. Josh had, what I consider to be, a really mature ride, fighting his way up to 16th, but very impressively running times the whole race that would have kept him comfortably within the top ten. Once again a solid ride from a young man whose maturity on the bike belies his young age...well done!"

Tweet

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 06 Oct 11

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

You must be logged in to post. If you have not registered with us, please do so now.

Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users do not have to complete word verification once logged in and can also take part in competitions and other registered user only features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our Sport archives.