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Ellis Radical Disappointment At Brands
London, UK – Sunday, July 17, 2011; Bradley Ellis recorded a rare DNF at the Brands Hatch Dunlop Radical UK Cup event today. A broken driveshaft ruined his unblemished home track podium record after what should have been a promising front row start for round 10 and a shot at his first race victory of the season.
The disappointing result and only non-finish of the year followed his impressive fifth place finish in the Supersport category in yesterday’s round nine in challenging weather conditions.
Equipped with a brand new Radical SR3, the Supreme Racing team were hopeful of a strong showing in the hands of the former British GT Champion and Brands Hatch expert. The new chariot was delivered just in time for Friday’s test session at the Kent circuit, however, Ellis only managed 10 laps to perfect the set-up for the double header race weekend.
Ellis and team-mate Andy Cummings looked promising in qualifying with both Supreme Racing drivers delivering their best results of the season so far while Ellis missed out on his first 2011 class pole position by the merest of margins. After topping the timesheets halfway through his session, his time of 51.062 seconds was just 0.097 off eventual pole-sitter Alex Kapadia.
Torrential rain showers throughout the day presented Cummings with interesting conditions for round nine on Saturday afternoon, but with a dry racing line slowly emerging, the Radical UK Cup newcomer coped with running on slicks.
Starting from his best grid slot of the season of seventh in class, and 13th overall, Cummings dropped one class slot on the opening lap adjusting to conditions before the safety car was called on-track with an incident that reinstated his start position. Green flag racing resumed at the end of lap four and Cummings continued to acclimatise to the drying racing line and improve his pace to pit from 11th overall and seventh in class, one lap down.
Ellis joined the fray at half race distance, with 20 minutes remaining after inevitably losing a few places due to his compulsory elongated pit stop as a professional driver. The 24 year-old soon set about making up for lost time and clawed his way back to 10th overall and sixth in the Supersport category thanks to a blistering out lap from the pits.
Nick Panteli was next in his sights and Ellis made light work of reducing the gap of over a second to move up to fifth in class and eighth overall at the exit of Graham Hill bend on lap 25.
Last month’s double-header Radical UK Cup event on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit saw Ellis charge from 16th to score a third-place podium but the Croydon racer was unable to repeat that feat due to the drawn out gaps between positions around the Indy circuit.
Seven seconds separated Ellis from his next target and fourth in class, held by Kapadia, yet his impressive pace smashed the deficit to just over two seconds within four laps as he clocked up the fastest lap times of the entire field.
Despite continuing at a blistering pace and slashing the gap further to within just two tenths of a second, it was impossible to find a place to pass around the tight and twisty 1.198-mile circuit with only one dry racing line available. Ellis had to settle for fifth in class after another notable drive from the mid-field.
Hopes were high to cement his Brands Hatch podium status in round 10 on Sunday, but on leaving the front row of the grid for the warm-up lap Ellis experienced a drive-train problem. Forced to head for the pits, it soon became apparent that the Supreme Racing Radical SR3 had suffered a driveshaft failure, bringing an end to his race weekend.
“I’ve enjoyed an incredible run of results at Brands Hatch so naturally I’m disappointed that I haven’t been able to deliver a repeat podium performance at my home track this weekend,” said Ellis.
“It was a bit frustrating to miss out on pole yesterday. Although it was really wet my last qualifying lap was a flyer, but I just misjudged the traffic by a fraction and that cost me the pole.
“Racing with the SR8s on the Indy circuit is a challenge as they have the power off the line but the SR3s are quicker through the corners, so I didn’t expect an easy time of it from the front row today. However, I was still hopeful of having a shot at the win if not certainly a podium finish, so it was unfortunate to suffer the driveshaft failure.
“The conditions were tricky all weekend and Andy endured a valuable learning curve racing on slicks yesterday. I did my best to work my way back through the field and even set a few fastest laps on the way, but the nature of the Indy circuit with only one dry line meant that there was no place that I could sensibly pass Alex Kapadia. I was just losing too much aero grip going through the high speed turns and although I was quicker every lap I just couldn’t rise above fifth in class.
“The new car felt fairly good considering the lack of development time. I felt there was something amiss with the car yesterday and it was obvious today that was the driveshaft issue. There’s certainly more to come from the car, we just need to concentrate on fine tuning. All we need now is a full day’s test to play with those tweaks before Donington Park next month.”
For further information on the Radical UK Cup visit www.radicalsportscars.com
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