McElnea: It's been a real tough year - again!

Rob McElnea, team manager of Virgin Mobile Samsung Yamaha, has admitted to Crash.net that they have had a tough start to their season - again!

"It's been a real tough year again. We started strong with a new bike and Sean Emmett as the number one rider. He got injured and really we've struggled since then," said McElnea. "He's still unfit but hopefully he'll get an operation to get it fixed and we'll get him back in the next couple of races."

Rob's plan had been for Sean to guide Tommy Hill but that hasn't really happened as Rob explains, "We hoped Sean would be the inspiration for Tommy but he's not here so Tommy has been a bit lost. Hopefully this weekend will be a turn around for Tommy and we'll get some results."

Sean Emmett crashed heavily at the first round of the season at Brands Hatch and has struggled since then as he has been riding with a broken and infected elbow. "His elbow is cracked so he is getting a couple of screws in there. He's got an infection so he's just waiting for the swelling to go down and the infection to clear before he can have surgery on it. It's dragging out a bit now," says McElnea.

On the plus side of things young gun Tommy Hill appears to be on form this weekend and they have James Haydon subbing for Emmett. As Rob tells us, "Tommy has really been strong here. Hopefully it can be the start of the second half of his year. He has been in the top five all of today, hopefully that will set him up for a good result for the weekend.

"As for James he's struggling a little bit, and he's just not getting comfortable on the bike yet, but no doubt tomorrow when it's qualifying and it gets serious James will dig deep like he always does. I'm hopeful we will get him happier on the bike and we will see the best from him."