Anglesey, Wales
Fermanagh's Josh Elliott was back in the saddle last weekend at the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. With no Irish Championship rounds, since he finished his Red Bull Rookies campaign in Mid-August, the 14 year old had not been racing.
The 'Thundersport GB' series which is televised by 'Motors TV' looked an attractive option of good, competitive track time, especially on the new Anglesey circuit. Young Elliott had been offered the use of a 125 Honda by Lisburn production company, 'Blanch Pak'. Owner David Guiney had been very impressed with Elliott's performance on his standard Honda in June at Bishopscourt, when he won the national 125 race.
Without any free practice the Ballinamallard lad went straight into first qualifying on Saturday morning, in beautiful weather conditions on the Welsh coastal circuit. He surprised the usual contenders despite never being there before by posting the third fastest time. Second qualifying was one better as he went second fastest, just a second behind the Thundersport top runner Edward Rendell.
Elliott got a very poor start in Saturday’s 'superpole' race, only 8th off the line with carburation splutter, but fought back well coming through the field to take a superb 2nd place, before the race was stopped two laps from the end because of an incident.
On his return to the paddock, Elliott was to learn he had been given a 10 second penalty for a flag infringement. This was a genuine mistake, but the officials stood by their decision which dropped him to 4th in the results.
Disappointed, he went into the next day determined to make up for this set back and although he missed a large portion of morning warm-up with carburation problems, he again was the man to watch in Race two. Now starting from 4th he got away well and quickly set about challenging for 3rd and took 2nd place off the diminutive Tom Weeden after a few laps. Leader Rendell had built a gap at this time so the win was too much to ask for and with his clutch starting to slip in the last few laps; Elliott nursed his Blanch Pak Honda home for an excellent 2nd place.
Despite a poor start in the final race the Fermanagh lad charged through from 6th in turn one to 2nd place and this time made a special effort to catch the leader Rendell. At one stage he looked to be pegging in the runaway local man, as he pushed to the limit, but succumbed to a number of slides and looked to have settled for another 2nd place finish. Unfortunately however his machine died out on lap 9 of 15 and rolled to a halt, with electrical fault the likely cause.
"Overall it has been a very worthwhile weekend at a great track," stated Elliott afterwards. "It would have been nice to get closer to Eddie at the start and challenge him, but he ran a very hot pace and deserved his wins. I have to thank Davy Guiney from Blanch Pak for loaning me his bike. It is very fast and if we can sort out some little problems, I think it is capable of winning races".