Stuart Easton and Hydrex Honda are celebrating their maiden MCE British Superbike Championship race win at Croft after battling to a lights-to-flag victory over James Ellison.
The high point of a breakthrough season that has seen him stand on the podium ten times already, while Easton has led several races this season, this is the first time he has been able to resist his rivals to the chequered flag.
While his cause was arguably aided by an off for Leon Camier on lap three, one that ruled him out of victory contention, Easton still had to contend with the attentions of Ellison, whose last lap attack wasn't enough to deny his former team a first ever win at BSB level.
Starting in third position, Easton got his trademark fast start from the front row to get dive into the lead through the first corner complex, ahead of Josh Brookes and Ellison.
Camier, meanwhile, suffered one his tardy starts, getting shuffled down to seventh position behind Simon Andrews, Chris Walker and Gary Mason. He immediately went on the offensive, dispatching Mason and Andrews before attempting to dive past Walker at Tower.
Running wide, Camier would only succeed in losing a position to Andrews, forcing him to wait another lap before he could attempt to find his way past the Kawasaki. However, while the championship leader would launch another attempt at Tower, the outcome would be worse.
Attempting to late-brake Andrews, Camier failed to get his Yamaha stopped in time, simply going went straight on, bouncing across the grass and nosing into a ditch on the outside of the run-off area. Dropping to last, the incident would cost him more than twenty seconds and a shot at a 16th win of the season.
With Camier out of the picture, the battle for the win would come down to Easton and Ellison, the local rider having overtaken Brookes on lap four at the Complex. The Australian would proceed to slip into the clutches of Andrews in the battle for the final podium spot.
Andrews, meanwhile, was on a charge, recovering from an earlier error to snatch third from Brookes on lap seven with an aggressive, but clean, pass at the tricky Sunny In right-hander.
