Mixed fortunes for Ellisons at Oulton Park

8:29am Friday 9th May 2008

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KENDAL'S James Ellison was forced to put his British Superbike podium celebrations on hold after brother Dean suffered a horrendous crash at Oulton Park.

The 27-year-old scooped his first podium of the season in race two at the weekend, finishing second behind runaway champ-ionship leader Shane Byrne.

But Ellison was far from ecstatic, as the race was red flagged after Dean Ellison collided with Steve Mercer on lap 13.

He said: "It was a really weird feeling at the end to be honest. I was obviously delighted with finishing second but I had a sickening feeling in my stomach about what happened to my brother.

"But I went to see him afterwards and he's on the mend so I can enjoy this.

"He's had a bit of a bang to his manhood and hurt his left foot but other than that he's laughing and joking.

"Getting on the podium was very unexpected. The season has been a bit gruelling so far but to come away with second place is a great credit to everyone in the team."

The Ellison family's afternoon had been far from good up until race two.

Hydrex Bike Animal Honda star James struggled on the wet track in race one to finish eighth, while Dean departed the track on lap 13 in the slippery conditions.

But former MotoGP rider James admitted the disappointment of race one fired him up for the second race under clearing Cheshire skies.

"I made a bad tyre choice this morning which was annoying. The bike was working really well but it was all down to me and unfortunately I made the wrong decision.

"But we knew the weather would improve and I just tried as hard as I could in the second race and I pushed really hard.

"The bike worked brilliantly and I knew it would be really hard to pass on that track.

"Thankfully we did it in the end and we'll got to Brands Hatch next week full of confidence."

n Tune into Eurosport 2 for Bennetts British Super Bikes Coverage on May 11 from Oulton Park at 12.30pm or for updates head to www.uk.eurosport.yahoo.com.