Ballinamallard man Josh Elliott was in sparkling form at Silverstone last weekend as he powered his way to fifth place in the Superstock 1000, a result which moves him up to seventh in the championship standings.

Having endured serious handling issues with his machine for some time now, it was discovered that there had been a damaged component in his suspension but with it repaired Josh was back to his best.

“It’s awesome to be back battling near the front and doing fast lap times, even getting below the lap record,” said Elliott. “The past numbers of rounds have been tough and I just didn’t have a good feeling on the bike. We found out why this weekend when we eventually got my forks sorted. It’s a bit frustrating knowing that we missed out on potentially good finishes and points but I’m glad we’ve finally sorted the problem. I battled for third with Lee Jackson for most of the race but the safety car had to come out and this turned out to go against me. Once it went back in after two laps I struggled to get back into a fast rhythm. The bike was also missing gears between second and third which caused me to drop back from Lee. To lose a position on the last lap was annoying. I tried my best to get it back but just couldn’t do it. It has been a busy few weeks and I have another round at Donington this weekend so I will try for another good result there. Big thanks to everyone who helps me on the GA Racing- Socialites Kawasaki.” With the damaged component in his suspension repaired between qualifying sessions by the Bitubo suspension technician, the 20 year old took a full second off his time and set the fifth fastest time in final qualifying, just 0.2 seconds off third.

The best start of his season to date saw Elliott slot into fourth place and after a few laps took Joe Burns for third only to lose out a lap later to the official BMW entry of one of this season’s race winners Lee Jackson.

He sat there comfortably and they pulled away from the fifth place man until lap eight when the pace car came out for a few laps following a crash. This allowed the pack to close up and after the restart he was hit with another issue as his bike started to have a problem with gear selection.

He desperately fought to hold fourth but was caught and passed on the last few corners by last year’s champion Hudson Kennaugh on a BMW.

The race was won by Championship leader Danny Buchan with runner up Jason O’Halloran on the official Honda entry.