Camier holds of Easton in Race Two
British Superbike Press Release
Airwaves Yamaha's Leon Camier stood on the top step of the podium for the first time this weekend after holding off the challenges of yesterday's race winner Stuart Easton and team-mate James Ellison to take his eighteenth victory of the season.
Camier said: "That was an awesome result for me and the Airwaves Yamaha team and to be honest I wasn't really expecting it as in the past I have never been that good in conditions like that but it was just great. It was difficult at first to see where the wet patches were but I got into a bit of a groove and I wanted to beat Stuart this time. I now want to get back out there for the next one and make it a double."
Easton had taken the whole shot off the line on the Hydrex Honda from team-mate Tommy Hill, James Ellison and Camier. Ellison was eager to get to the front on his number two machine after suffering an engine problem this morning in warm up and took second into Cascades for the first time before taking the lead at Lodge by storming down the inside of Easton.
Ellison held the lead but team-mate Camier was working his way up the leading pack; passing Hill into Lodge on the third lap to move from fourth to third. The new champion then got the better of Easton as the pair ran side-by-side into Lodge, with the Hydrex Honda rider forced to concede the place despite his best efforts to defend.
Camier then took the lead on the run down to Shell Oils corner on the tenth lap to take the lead on the tenth lap, but he was forced to slow the pace as the Audi R8 safety car was deployed on the next lap to check for oil after Julien Da Costa and Ian Lowry both suffered technical problems.
A lap later the Audi R8 safety car was back in the pitlane and Camier was forced to hold off Easton who made several attempts to pass, but a determined Camier held the line. On the 13th lap Easton was ready for a lunge down the inside on the brakes but Camier cut back sharply to hold the place. He made a last lap attempt by trying the outside line into Hizzy's chicane but he couldn't make it stick and at Lodge Camier defended hard to hold the advantage to cross the line 0.080s adrift with Ellison third.
Hill held fourth on the second Hydrex Honda from a hard-charging Sylvain Guintoli, with John Laverty making a move to take sixth place from Josh Brookes on the 13th lap at Lodge and was able to keep the Buildbase Kawasaki ahead.
Michael Rutter gave the Bathams Ducati team a top ten finish in eighth after passing Simon Andrews on the MSS Colchester Kawasaki after the safety car period with Glen Richards rounding out the top ten on the second of the HM Plant Hondas.
Race two result:
- Leon Camier (Airwaves Yamaha)
- Stuart Easton (Hydrex Honda) +0.080s
- James Ellison (Airwaves Yamaha) +0.743s
- Tommy Hill (Hydrex Honda) +1.953s
- Sylvain Guintoli (Worx Crescent Suzuki) +4.042s
- John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +7.721s
- Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +8.092s
- Michael Rutter (Bathams Ducati) +12.441s
- Simon Andrews (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +15.175s
- Glen Richards (HM Plant Honda) +15.328s
