Ellis and Clement steady away at Croft

Current World Sidecar champions Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement from North Kelsey took their new F2 CES Yamaha short chassis outfit to North Yorkshire at the weekend to take part in the opening round of the FSRA British F2 Sidecar championship at Croft Circuit, using the track time to test the new outfit on which they will make their debut at this year’s Isle of Man TT races in June.

After qualifying the pair lined up for a front row start to the first race and were keeping pace with the leaders but were unfortunate to catch the rumble strip on lap four which fetched the chain off, their race over.

In the second race the double world champions took it steady as parts of the track were wet and completed the race without incident, crossing the finish line in third place to receive their first signature for the TT Mountain Course licence.

Todd Ellis said: “That’s our first signatures towards our TT licence in the bag. We were just up here to see how the outfit performs under race conditions and to test the tyres ready for the TT. We are going straight to the Isle of Man for the TT launch then back for the Goodwood 81st members meeting next weekend and then on to the opening round of the 2024 World Sidecar championship at Le Mans.”

Ellis and Clement will begin the defence of their world title at Le Mans over the weekend of April 19/20.