Josh Elliott declared himself content with his second place at Thruxton, despite seeing his Pirelli National Superstock Championship lead cut for the second race in succession. The Fermanagh rider dominated for much of the race and led until the final lap but lost out on the victory when title rival Alastair Seeley forced his way past.

Despite not taking the win Josh was satisfied with his second spot after crashing heavily on his previous outing, although the result could have been even better had there not been confusion with his pit board incorrectly informing him he had another lap remaining. “I was happy enough to be honest especially after what happened at Brands Hatch,” he admitted. “I knew I had to ride my own race and not get sucked in by the tactics of other riders and that is pretty much what I did. Thruxton was always a track that I knew BMW were going to be strong at because the track is very fast and the BMs always go well there. I got out in front and tried to put in consistent lap times and let everyone else work to try and beat me. Obviously I was a bit disappointed because I thought there were two laps to go when Alastair went past me. I thought I would just sit in behind him for the last lap and try to make a move somewhere near the end of the lap, so when I saw the chequered flag it was a bit gutting but there was a lot of positives to take from the weekend.” The positives started right from the first practice session with josh challenging for top spot both before and during the race. “We kept on improving the bike each session and we led for most of the race and pulled out a gap,” he said. “At the end Alastair, because he has programmable maps in the bike, was able to manage his tyres so his bike wouldn’t be spinning and sliding as much as mine and that is what he used to his advantage to reel me back in at the end of the race. The speed of the BMW helped him as well down the back straight but we are still leading the championship by 17 points.” The second place result was all the more remarkable given Josh was still hindered by a cracked bone in his arm suffered in the crash at Brands Hatch. “I have a crack in my humorous and there is very bad swelling around it,” he revealed. “At the end of the race it started to get a bit numb and I couldn’t really change direction comfortably, and that is probably one of the reasons the gap closed. I thought it would affect me worse than it did, but it was only towards the end that it got bad. I’m getting physio on it pretty much every day to try to get it back to 100 per cent. I’m on the bike this week testing so I will be feeling it again. I just have to give it time, but it isn’t affecting me so much that I can’t ride so it’s not that bad.” Josh’s next outing is at Caldwell Park in three weeks’ time, and he is hopeful he can get back on the top step of the podium again. “It is a very tight technical track,” he revealed. “There is famous mountain section with jumps but it should suit the Kawasaki because there are no big long straights on it.”