Tyco BMW rider Josh Elliott landed his second National 1000cc Superstock podium for TAS Racing in just seven days, when he finished third in today’s feature race at Oulton Park in tricky conditions.
The Northern Irishman battled through from sixth place to take the final spot on the podium, and such was the 23-year-old’s pace, he impressively took the chequered flag some 14 seconds ahead of the fourth placed finisher.
There was no such luck for Christian Iddon. After showing so much promise and securing several fastest lap times during the weekend’s practice sessions, both races proved frustrating for the local rider. After running in second place for the majority of race one with good pace, Iddon crashed out on lap 10 of 14. Race two proved equally challenging for the Stockport rider who battled through some tyre chatter problems to finish ninth. Despite a difficult weekend, Iddon currently leads the British Superbike Championship’s Riders’ Cup.
Josh Elliott #10: “I’m delighted to have got another podium today. I made a strong start and chanced a very risky move into turn one that paid off massively for me. I got myself into third behind Richard Cooper and Danny Buchan. I was holding on to them for a few laps but just struggled through the damp parts. I forced a big gap back to fourth place, which meant I could cruise home in third. Massive thank you to everyone in the Tyco BMW team especially my crew for working hard all weekend.”
Christian Iddon #24: “We fell out of contention in the first race, but we were in a position that we had nothing really to lose. I was struggling to get the bike stopped into Hizzy’s. I had previously run on there and I ran in deep again; this time I tried to make the corner and it resulted in an innocuous little crash which was unfortunate as we had good pace. In the second race I started reasonably strongly, I felt we had a good package in the dry as well as the wet and was starting to make moves forward. Then we started to get a huge amount of chatter and the tyre rapidly lost grip and from that point, I was clocking lap times almost three seconds slower than that of my outlap pace. It was really disappointing and embarrassing to be honest. All the team deserve a lot more as we have more pace than this.”
Team Manager – Philip Neill: “It’s obviously disappointing that we showed so much promise today in the Superbike class with Christian and didn’t get the reward. He has outstanding pace in the wet, which he has now demonstrated at both Silverstone and Oulton Park, back-to-back, but we just need to finish off the job in these races and grab some podiums and of course that elusive first win for him is a big goal. He had some obvious issues in the second race, which hampered his chances, as we know both Christian and the Tyco BMW S1000RR package is so much better than that.
“Josh Elliott did another good job this weekend in the Superstock class, taking his second podium in just seven days on the S1000RR. It shows that the lad’s confidence is growing and his third place is as much a reward for our hard working team as it is for Josh. But I take nothing away from him, he earned it on track. Thanks once again to all our sponsors for their continued support, manifest by the large numbers that turned up this weekend.”
ENDS