James Ellison has his sights set on winning the MCE British Superbike Championships, and if he does so it will be one of the greatest comebacks in racing.
Ellison started off the 2015 season by winning three of the first four races on his JG Speedfit Kawasaki ZX-10R, which earned him an early lead in the Championship point standings. But he suffered his first major setback of the season at Round Four at Snetterton.
“I was at the front in free practice, qualified at the front, crossed the line to take pole position and it was raining in Turn One,” Ellison exclusively told Roadracingworld.com Thursday at Silverstone Circuit, site of this coming weekend’s MCE British Superbike event. “I tipped in on a completely wet track on slicks, highsided, the bike went over me and I broke two ribs.”
Anyone who has broken ribs knows it’s hard to breathe let alone ride a 200-plus-horsepower Superbike, but Ellison soldiered on at Snetterton and the next round at Knockhill with minimal reward.
“I think the bike broke down in Race One [at Snetterton] because the repairs were bad and we got like a seventh in Race Two,” said Ellison. “Then we went to the next race and got two DNFs. I was running at the front again, but I was literally struggling with the ribs because they were really painful. I ended up crashing out of one race and ran off in the other just because I couldn’t muscle myself around on the bike.”
Ellison dropped from first to fourth in the Championship, right before things went from bad to better to worse.
“The ribs were a little bit stronger and I got back on the podium,” at Brands Hatch, said the former AMA Superbike and MotoGP regular. “Then the next round was Thruxton, the fastest circuit in the UK. The guy in front of me blew his engine at 150 mph and completely covered me in oil. My visor was black from oil, it covered my bike in oil, and I highsided and snapped my [left] wrist. Then it was just a fight to get back.”
In 2014, Ellison suffered a broken femur midseason but amazingly only missed three rounds and finished the season with three podium finishes in the final five races. Using what he learned while recovering from that injury and another broken femur in 2010, 35-year-old Ellison made an even more amazing comeback from his broken wrist, missing only two rounds.
“Like last year when I broke my femur, I went straight into the hyperbaric chamber, the right nutrition, the right supplements, the right exercise,” said Ellison. “I had the cast on for maybe two weeks and then took that off and started to mobilize it, got in the pool and swam before the muscle wasted away too badly. And then I think it was week five I came back at Oulton Park. It was another quite short [recovery] period again, like last year.
“I’ve learned from previous years. I learned a lot from about the right nutrition, about how bones heal, about the different stages they go through to heal. I just try to give the body the right nutrients to fix itself as fast as possible, as well as do the hyperbaric chamber and laser treatments, everything just to try and speed it up.
“This isn’t just a job. It’s a passion, and I don’t want to sit out. I still get paid. If I sit at home I still get my wages, but I want to be Champion and I’m not going to do that by sitting at home.”
Ellison said he arrived at Oulton Park not even sure if he could ride and things went much better than he expected.
“I told my guys I didn’t know if I could even complete free practice one. ‘I’m going to go out and see how it is.’ I went out in the first practice and I was top 15. I said, ‘I think we’ll be alright for the race.’ Then when it came to qualifying I stuck it on the front row. I thought, ‘Well, shit! Now the pressure’s on. I’m gonna have to go out and perform.’
“Then the adrenaline took over a little bit and we also altered the bike a little bit. We put some footrest hangers on the frame, because the problem I’m having is when I brake the ligament to the bones is still not attached and it tends to throw my wrist forward and my shoulder forward. So I don’t have the braking stability that I need. There’s some immense forces going through your arms when you’re braking, and squeezing the tank [with my legs] wasn’t enough. So we put some footrest hangers on the frame and I put my knees against them and they act like another pair of arms. So when I’m braking now, hard braking, it helps me brake later. And we managed to pull off a second place and was only 0.7 second from the win.”
Ellison followed that up with a pair of second-place finishes at Assen, which has moved him back up into third place in the point standings and, with a little help from the British Superbike Championship’s unique Showdown system, into a position to still have a chance at winning the Championship.
“It’s been tough this year,” said Ellison. “We’ve gone from first and leading the Championship to fourth, and now we’ve built back up to third and at Assen I closed up the gap to Shakey [Shane Byrne]. I’m now within 12 points of second place now, so we’re starting to creep back up again. And there’s five races left and 125 points up for grabs and we’re 41 points out of the lead. It’s definitely still possible. You’ve got to keep that goal in your head.”