A disappointing 21st place finish in round six of the British Championship at Thruxton for Fermanagh rider Josh Elliott at the weekend left the Ballinamallard youngster targeting a much better performance at Oulton Park next time out.

Numerous handling issues and brake fade ruined his race and meant he could not show the competitiveness he previously had.

Nevertheless, a determined Josh promised better at Oulton Park next weekend as he revealed: “Obviously I’m extremely disappointed with the result and it certainly isn’t where we should be. There are no excuses for this weekend, as a team we didn’t deliver and we need to learn from it and get back on form at Oulton Park next weekend. Regardless, I am very grateful for the effort and support from all my sponsors and everyone connected to the team.” Josh had never finished a race at Thruxton and arrived at the old airfield circuit hoping to put last year’s massive qualifying crash behind him. Free practice went fairly well finishing in sixth but he knew the pace would ramp up and there was progress to be made.

Although he improved in time in first qualifying he dropped to 12th and a torrential downpour the next day postponed second qualifying to after 6pm. A chassis balance and gearing change proved the wrong way to go and he was much slower dropping him to 16th on the grid.

His team went back to near the previous setting for the race and tried to improve on a few things to help him have a competitive chance, but it was obvious from the off that something was wrong.

Elliott and others got shunted back in turn two when another rider made a risky move, so was up against it. As he tried to claw back positions from 23rd his front brakes performance dropped off making his customary out braking manoeuvres extremely difficult.

He dug deep and made it to 19th but as the brakes faded further he was simply picked off and crossed the line in 21st.