James Ellison

The mark of a good sportsperson is dedication. Dedication to training, to practice, to improvement. The hallmark of a great sportsperson is obsession. Obsession for the cause and consequence of the sport. For some this obsession is drilled into them, for others it is ingrained into their personality.

Motorsport is a huge area where obsession is the motivation for competitors. Encouraging them to shave off a couple tenths of a second, take more risks, condition to be leaner, fitter and faster.

James Ellison, Swan Honda rider in British Superbikes, has this same obsession ingrained into him. To say that he is bike obsessed would be a fair suggestion, “I would quite seriously say I am. My whole life revolves around it. When I eat, when I train, when I sleep. I’m always day-dreaming about bikes. Everything I’ve ever done revolves around bikes.”

Ellison’s relationship with the machines is something which was passed onto him and played a major part in his childhood. “I’ve always been into it. BMX is where I started out, and I’ve had a motorbike since I was three. Both me and my brother had one, he is three years older than me, so he got a pw-50. When he was six he progressed to a 75, a sort of dirt bike, and I got the pw-50.

“We used to go and watch my Dad race, he was always racing club classics, so naturally it’s in your blood and you just want to try it.”

The British rider boasts an impressive resume, having raced in MotoGP, British Superbikes, AMA Superbikes and as wild-card entries for the World Superbike series, all of which provide him with immeasurable experience.

As days pass, everything builds up to a race weekend. For someone as passionate and committed as Ellison, this is what it is all about. From his first race at Elvington in 1995, through his first victory at Lydden Hill in 1996, to his most recent meet, which will be the season opener at Brand’s Hatch.

“It’s just a massive build up. We work hard during the week, just training and it’s another way to get rid of that aggression, it’s just a constant frustration of not being able to ride.

When you finally do get to chuck your leg over the bike on a Friday, you let rip. It’s dead easy, subconscious, you get on it and a switch flicks, it just happens.”

The British rider is entering the 2010 BSB season off the back of a decent 2009 campaign and has been training hard over the winter. Intense fitness regimes and strict diets are important to all motorsport athletes, but can easily be overlooked by the speed and intensity of the sport. Nonetheless training and fitness is a huge part of being a racer, something that arguably, makes them fitter than most other athletes.

“The thing is we have to do all sorts of different stuff. Where a footballer would focus on football, leg strength, a bit of upper body strength and a lot of skills, with us you can’t find any sport matching it [racing]. We can’t just jump on our bikes everyday. We have to find different sports that use the same muscles that we do.

“The bikes are close to 220 bhp (break horse power), they weigh about 160 – 175 kg, and at that kind of speed 175 kg gets a lot heavier, especially when you’re trying to flick it from one direction to the other.”

When racing is something that flows through you, that determination and passion for the sport carry you. The desire to get on the track, paired with the frustration at not being able to ride for a period of time propels the obsessed through the rigours of intense training and strict dieting.

“The kind of training we do is pretty intense. I train twice a day everyday. Like today it was an easy one, a three-mile sprint. That’s because yesterday was a bit more intense. It was one-mile fast and then an hour of running at a consistent pace and then I have my sprint session, which is six 400m sprints and two 200m sprints. We try and cover upper body, lower body, and link those two together. There’s a lot of work done on the core strength and a lot of work done on CV (cardiovascular), as well as obviously mountain biking and cycling.

“When I was in Texas, a Tuesday morning would be a 100-mile cycle. Then about three or four days a week we would do between 30 and 50-miles per day. Plus you got the eight-mile run, which we would do three days a week and then three days of circuit training as well. It was pretty intense.”

Despite the toil, frustration and preparation, high-speed racing is full of risks and danger. Considering the amount of crashes, injuries and even fatalities over the years, you would have to have a screw loose to be a racer. Injuries and accidents are just another part of the sport though, and just accepted and forgotten.

Ellison’s biggest injury was during testing in 2005, an accident that damaged his elbow and gave him problems for the next couple of years.

“I’d lost a bit of weight from when I’d got my leathers measured to when I crashed, so they were quite loose. It was basically just leather between my elbow and the tarmac and it put a hole in them, a hole in my elbow and ground my bone and ligaments off. It didn’t break anything, it just burst through the skin. I had a lot of nerve damage for a couple of years after that.

“Touch wood I haven’t done much, I broke both my scaphoids in one crash, had a couple of concussions, plenty of twisted ankles, bent fingers and stuff, but I’ve actually been quite lucky. You just completely forget about it and go straight back out on your bike, if you can, and just ride through it. If you’re fit you mend a lot quicker. Your muscles heal a lot quicker. You become more flexible, so things don’t break and they don’t stretch and tear. If you’re flexible then you’re less likely to get an injury.”

The long hours, hard sessions and frustrating injuries are worth it for Ellison and other racers of the same mould, as nothing can compete with the satisfaction of motorbike racing. Despite all of the preparation, the 2010 season will feel different, as Donnington Park, a circuit ingrained in the history of British motorsport, and one that has significance to Ellison, will not be part of the race schedule.

“I’ll definitely miss it, it’s wicked. It’s got a lot of history and it’s just an incredible circuit. I have got a lot of memories there, obviously racing there in the GP for the first time. Me, my Dad and brother used to go down there and watch the GP racing, so to be apart of it back in ‘05 and ‘06 was just incredible. It’s just a shame we’re not going to be there. I don’t want to see it go.”

That aside, 2010 will be a huge year for James Ellison and his Swan Honda team, a year that could add another gold star to an already impressive list of achievements.



James Ellison rides for Swan Honda. For more information on him and the team, please visit: www.swanhonda.co.uk.

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The opening round of the MCE Insurance British Superbike Championship takes place on Easter weekend (2/3/4/5 April) at Brands Hatch. For more information visit: www.britishsuperbike.com or to book call 0870 950 9000.