Nathan-Ellis and the rest of the team arrived on Thursday to start getting prepared for Round 2 of the HEL British Junior Supersport at Donington Park. The races this weekend are taking place on the full track layout set in Leicestershire.
Some of the other competitors in the Supersport are busy with GCSE Exams which unfortunately meant no track time on the Friday, but plenty of time to get the bike prepared for the weekend.
Free practice started early on Saturday morning. Nathan-Ellis needed some time on the bike to get back up to speed as he hadn’t been on track since round 1 at Silverstone.
Practice was quickly followed by qualifying at lunchtime. It was obvious that slipstreaming would be needed to get a good time. Nathan-Ellis managed to record a 1:46.824 lap (and another within 0.003 seconds of that!) to take 14th place on the grid for the first race.
Nathan-Ellis felt like he got a great start to the race, and the lap charts back that up, showing him in 8th place by the end of lap one.
The battle was just getting going with Nathan-Ellis holding on to the second group of riders in the race. Unfortunately, the race was cut short by a red flag due to a rider falling at Coppice. Which meant that the final result for race 1 was 9th place.
Race 2 was early on the very warm Sunday morning. The team decided to try making some changes to the bike in search of more speed.
Nathan-Ellis made a good start and was on the edge of the top 10 early on. The tight racing resulted in Nathan-Ellis getting pushed wide into the Fogarty Esses on lap 2 and forcing him to miss the chicane.
After rejoining the track in 16 or 17th, he managed to fight back across the rest of the race to end in 12th place.
It seemed like the setup changes didn’t gain as much as the team had hoped. But the team did learn from them, and can hopefully use that knowledge for a better result next time out.
Nathan-Ellis said, “we decided to make some changes to my bike for race 2 but unfortunately didn’t really work out as we planned. But if you don’t try, you don’t know!”
It was not quite the result the team wanted for the weekend. Nathan-Ellis said, ”it’s not what I wanted and hoped for, but that’s racing for you. I have learned so much with the team. This was a good weekend overall with lots of learning to be had for my first year at this level.
Onwards and upwards now, getting ready for Knockhill. I would like to thank everybody within the team, the sponsors, and everyone who came to watch me.”
Nathan-Ellis gained another 12 points towards the championship from of the weekend. Not a bad result at all, but the whole team feel like there is much more to come.
British Junior Supersport Championship Standings after Round 2
| Position | Rider | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis JONES (Kawasaki) | 94 |
| 2 | Finn SMART-WEEDEN (Kawasaki) | 81 |
| 3 | Jack KIRSCH (Kawasaki) | 76 |
| 4 | Kalvin KELLY (Kawasaki) | 64 |
| 5 | Jacob STEPHENSON (Kawasaki) | 59 |
| 6 | Lennon DOCHERTY (Kawasaki) | 50 |
| 7 | Calum BEACH (Kawasaki) | 36 |
| 8 | Chloe JONES (Kawasaki) | 31 |
| 9 | Jack SMITH (Kawasaki) | 30 |
| 10 | Lewis SMART (Kawasaki) | 26 |
| 11 | Adam BROWN (Kawasaki) | 26 |
| 12 | Joe ELLIS (Kawasaki) | 23 |
| 13 | Nathan-Ellis WARD (Kawasaki) | 17 |
| 14 | Maximus HARDY (Kawasaki) | 15 |
| 15 | Jamie HANKS-ELLIOTT (Kawasaki) | 10 |
| 16 | Rossi DOBSON (Kawasaki) | 8 |
| 17 | Abbz THOMAS (Kawasaki) | 7 |
| 18 | Denise DAL ZOTTO (Kawasaki) | 5 |
| 19 | Charlotte MARCUZZO (Kawasaki) | 3 |
| 20 | Jack KNIGHTS (Kawasaki) | 2 |
| 21 | Greg MARSHALL (Kawasaki) | 1 |
RACE 1 RESULTS
| Position | Number | Rider | Time | MPH | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Lewis JONES | 10:39.406 | 83.81 | 1:45.471 |
| 2 | 67 | Jacob STEPHENSON | 10:39.861 | 83.75 | 1:44.803 |
| 3 | 74 | Finn SMART-WEEDEN | 10:40.237 | 83.7 | 1:45.275 |
| 4 | 7 | Jack KIRSCH | 10:41.022 | 83.6 | 1:45.342 |
| 5 | 32 | Lewis SMART | 10:41.169 | 83.58 | 1:45.593 |
| 6 | 90 | Kalvin KELLY | 10:41.508 | 83.53 | 1:45.364 |
| 7 | 15 | Chloe JONES | 10:41.669 | 83.51 | 1:45.607 |
| 8 | 23 | Joe ELLIS | 10:42.137 | 83.45 | 1:44.896 |
| 9 | 31 | Nathan-Ellis WARD | 8:57.984 | 82.96 | 1:46.115 |
| 10 | 27 | Calum BEACH | 8:58.045 | 82.95 | 1:46.099 |
| 11 | 8 | Denise DAL ZOTTO | 9:02.494 | 82.27 | 1:46.861 |
| 12 | 33 | Adam BROWN | 9:02.828 | 82.22 | 1:46.152 |
| 13 | 17 | Charlotte MARCUZZO | 9:03.191 | 82.17 | 1:47.160 |
| 14 | 16 | Jamie HANKS-ELLIOTT | 9:03.435 | 82.13 | 1:46.743 |
| 15 | 66 | Rossi DOBSON | 9:05.330 | 81.85 | 1:47.188 |
| 16 | 52 | Katie HAND | 9:06.984 | 81.6 | 1:47.731 |
| 17 | 71 | Maximus HARDY | 9:07.207 | 81.57 | 1:47.697 |
| 18 | 6 | Jack KNIGHTS | 9:07.408 | 81.54 | 1:47.668 |
| 19 | 72 | Samuel MUNSON | 9:07.589 | 81.51 | 1:47.601 |
| 20 | 95 | Greg MARSHALL | 9:13.976 | 80.57 | 1:48.030 |
| 21 | 39 | Aaron MONK | 9:14.924 | 80.43 | 1:48.671 |
| 22 | 99 | James CLEARY | 9:14.959 | 80.43 | 1:47.953 |
| 23 | 75 | Aaron LILLY | 9:15.699 | 80.32 | 1:49.016 |
| 24 | 81 | Keo WALKER | 9:16.292 | 80.23 | 1:48.797 |
| 25 | 87 | Felix DORLING | 9:16.840 | 80.15 | 1:48.907 |
| 26 | 9 | Will GRANT | 9:22.748 | 79.31 | 1:50.681 |
| 27 | 34 | Lissy WHITMORE | 9:29.663 | 78.35 | 1:52.257 |
| 28 | 61 | Freddy OAKLEY | 9:33.684 | 77.8 | 1:49.129 |
| 29 | 41 | Scarlett ROBINSON | 9:44.429 | 76.37 | 1:54.963 |
RACE 2 RESULTS
| Position | Number | Name | Time | MPH | Best |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Lewis JONES | 17:40.036 | 84.34 | 1:44.905 |
| 2 | 7 | Jack KIRSCH | 17:40.414 | 84.31 | 1:45.042 |
| 3 | 60 | Lennon DOCHERTY | 17:40.621 | 84.29 | 1:45.096 |
| 4 | 74 | Finn SMART-WEEDEN | 17:41.217 | 84.25 | 1:44.985 |
| 5 | 90 | Kalvin KELLY | 17:41.224 | 84.24 | 1:45.037 |
| 6 | 44 | Jack SMITH | 17:41.795 | 84.2 | 1:45.118 |
| 7 | 15 | Chloe JONES | 17:42.515 | 84.14 | 1:45.206 |
| 8 | 32 | Lewis SMART | 17:53.622 | 83.27 | 1:46.015 |
| 9 | 71 | Maximus HARDY | 17:54.931 | 83.17 | 1:45.961 |
| 10 | 33 | Adam BROWN | 17:55.127 | 83.16 | 1:46.341 |
| 11 | 16 | Jamie HANKS-ELLIOTT | 17:55.167 | 83.15 | 1:46.186 |
| 12 | 31 | Nathan-Ellis WARD | 17:55.260 | 83.15 | 1:46.087 |
| 13 | 88 | Abbz THOMAS | 17:55.371 | 83.14 | 1:46.013 |
| 14 | 6 | Jack KNIGHTS | 17:55.527 | 83.12 | 1:45.926 |
| 15 | 95 | Greg MARSHALL | 17:56.472 | 83.05 | 1:46.054 |
| 16 | 8 | Denise DAL ZOTTO | 17:59.593 | 82.81 | 1:46.467 |
| 17 | 52 | Katie HAND | 17:59.822 | 82.79 | 1:46.459 |
| 18 | 72 | Samuel MUNSON | 18:07.019 | 82.25 | 1:47.097 |
| 19 | 81 | Keo WALKER | 18:07.101 | 82.24 | 1:47.071 |
| 20 | 9 | Will GRANT | 18:20.685 | 81.22 | 1:48.828 |
| 21 | 61 | Freddy OAKLEY | 18:22.318 | 81.1 | 1:48.485 |
| 22 | 80 | Rossi BROWN | 18:22.457 | 81.09 | 1:48.614 |
| 23 | 34 | Lissy WHITMORE | 18:37.032 | 80.04 | 1:50.264 |
| 24 | 41 | Scarlett ROBINSON | 19:02.573 | 78.25 | 1:52.486 |
