ADAM Ellis believes Saturday’s British Grand Prix will be invaluable to his development as a rider after the Swindon Robins youngster got to see how the best in the world compete first hand.

Ellis was one of two track reserves in Cardiff in the latest round of the Speedway GP series and ended up seeing plenty of action on the day.

The 21-year-old was thrust into the limelight as early as the second heat at the Principality Stadium following the exclusion of Poland’s Piotr Pawlicki and he and fellow reserve Josh Bates then shared Greg Hancock’s remaining four races after the American withdrew with injury after just one ride.

Although Ellis was unable to score a point from any of his three outings, the Swindon star still left full of enthusiasm and with a better understanding of the improvements he needs to make.

“It was a good experience. I am a little bit disappointed with a couple of things I did but I felt on the pace, so it wasn’t too bad,” said Ellis.

“It was great to have an opportunity to get out there. So many reserves come here every year and don’t get a ride, so to get three rides was great.

“After today, I feel like there is a lot I need to work on for the coming years. It gives me an idea of what I need to do having seen how the other boys do it. I can definitely take a lot of positives from it.

“It does fuel the fire a bit. Obviously everyone wants to be here racing week in, week out, but it puts into perspective how much work there is to do it.

“These guys at this level all the time. It’s not just one week, every meeting they are riding at the level they are now.”

Ellis was particularly impressed by the performance of his captain at Swindon, Jason Doyle, who finished runner-up to Polish winner Maciej Janowski in Cardiff despite the Australian battling against an ongoing foot injury as well as a fall in his second ride.

“It was awesome from Jason. It is great to him going so well, especially with what he is going through at the moment,” added Ellis.

“It is not easy to ride when you are injured and you use your feet a lot more than people realise.

“Fair play to him, he stuck it out and got back into the final after going down. He didn’t do it the easy way, that’s for sure.”