Back to winning ways for Ellis and Clement
Its been a while since double World Sidecar champions Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement were last out racing but they have returned the track for the annual Festival of Sidecars event at Cadwell and secured a win and a podium in the SSD British Sidecar championship round on Sunday.
While the FIM World championship is taking its summer break Ellis and Clement from North Kelsey near Market Rasen decided to enter a round of the British Sidecar championship at nearby Cadwell Park to get some track time under their belts with the LCR Yamaha outfit.
After qualifying in seventh place they took their place on the fourth row of the grid for the start of the opening race and were running in a close sixth place during the first half of the 12 lap race. The top six outfits pulled well clear of the pursuing pack with Ellis and Clement moving up to fifth place on lap seven. Although they completed the race in fifth position one outfit was a wildcard entry and ineligible for championship points so Ellis and Clement were rewarded with 13 points for fourth place!
The second race was delayed because of heavy rain and it was a declared a wet race. As they are not in contention for the championship Ellis and Clement had nothing to lose so took the gamble on the track drying and once the rain eased the race got underway with Ellis opting for a slick rear tyre.
Starting from the third row they had a steady start and were fifth for the first three laps. The top four had pulled a gap of three seconds but the track then began to dry and the gamble started to pay off. On lap six they were right on the tail of Birchall/Rosney and one lap later they passed them to take up fourth position.
Another lap and they were up into third place and chasing the two leading outfits and on the penultimate lap they set a new best race lap to pass Blackstock/Lawrence for second place. On the final lap they shaved another tenth from their times and crossed the finish line just behind Paivarinta/Christie to finish second. But as Paivarinta was the wildcard Ellis and Clement took the class win and the 25 points plus the fastest lap of 1m 40.907s - 77.77mph.
Starting the final race from pole position the track was completely dry so everyone was on slicks. As the race got underway the top six outfits were all together and pulled away from the pack. Ellis and Clement held third place for a few laps before being demoted to fourth. They remained in fourth place through the remainder of the race but once again picked up the points for third in class.
After contesting just the one round at Cadwell Park Ellis and Clement find themselves in 11th place in the overall standings on 54 points.