Top five at Assen for Ellis and Clement
Two-time world sidecar champions Todd Ellis and Emanuelle Clement from North Kelsey near Market Rasen overcame technical problems to claim a brace of fifth places on their return to international racing at Assen in the Netherlands as the series resumed after the summer break.
In free practice on Friday everything went smoothly but the times were well down on last year and they completed the session in fifth place.
After tweaking the settings for first qualifying Ellis still didn’t have the feeling he wanted and more adjustments were made ahead of final qualifying where he and Emmanuelle ended the session with a faster time but still fifth.
Ellis said: “We are satisfied with the way the outfit is running but it just doesn't feel quite right so we have decided to use this weekend to work through some different settings and improve our performance.”
Ellis and Clement began the sprint race on Saturday from a third row grid position and completed the first lap in fifth before moving forward to fourth after passing Leglise/Cescutti.
By then they were some three seconds away from the top three outfits. They continued in fourth place to the final lap when they were reeled in by Schlosser/Schmidt who snatched their position from them when in sight of the chequered flag leaving Ellis and Clement to finish in fifth place.
The second race on Sunday was the 16 lap feature race and after once again starting from the third row Ellis and Clement shot away to a good start, battling with Leglise/Cescutti throughout the opening lap before finally making their pass stick.
This time they were on the back of the three leading outfits but as the race went on the pace quickened and Ellis and Clement were unable to remain with them and dropped back into the clutches of Schlosser/Schmidt who demoted them to fifth. From then on Ellis and Clement remained in a lonely fifth place to cross the finish line for their second top five place of the weekend.
Clement said: “We have mixed feelings on our results today, there are positives to take away with us but we are still far from where we would like to be. This year is all about a season of testing to find that perfect confidence with the new outfit.”
Ellis and Clement will be back in action at Snetterton over the weekend of August 30/31 for a round of the British Championship.