Super Pole for Camier
24.05.09
Airwaves Yamaha riders Leon Camier and James Ellison will start tomorrow's British Superbike races at Donington Park from the front row of the grid. Leon, the current Championship leader, posted the fastest lap of the weekend to claim a second consecutive pole position. Team mate James Ellison will start 3rd.
After trading fastest times in Qualifying 1 and 2, both Leon and James were quickly on the pace in the final session. Leon immediately went top after his first flying lap, with his pole time, 1:31.047 coming on lap 3 of 6. James meanwhile worked hard to make his way up the timesheet and improved every lap. His fastest time, 1:31.442 securing his best grid slot for Airwaves Yamaha to date.
After qualifying, Leon commented, "The new Yamaha engine is working really well, giving us more power and speed. It's changed the bike a lot and we've improved in every session. From the times we'd been doing over the weekend, I felt confident we could qualify well but I just needed to make sure I put a good lap together. Our race pace is encouraging so I think I've got a good chance of a scoring a couple of podiums for Airwaves Yamaha tomorrow".
Reflecting on his qualifying performance today, James said, "It's about time I made it on to the front row! I really gave it everything today so I'm pleased to have got the result. I've had the team behind me from the start, and of course Leon has had great success already, it's just taken me longer to understand the YZF-R1 than I had hoped. The new engine this weekend has been great fun and it's made such a difference to the overall package. The race pace we have is looking good so I'll be hoping for at least a podium tomorrow".
Results:
1) Leon Camier - Airwaves Yamaha - 1:31.047
2) Sylvain Guintoli - Worx Crescent Suzuki - 1:31.111
3) James Ellison - Airwaves Yamaha - 1:31.442
4) Simon Andrews - MSS Colchester Kawasaki - 1:31.585