Media Release: Ellis Sets Spa Pace
Hinckley, Leicestershire (UK) – Friday, May 6, 2011; Bradley Ellis delivered another impressive Radical UK Cup performance around the picturesque Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, narrowly missing out on a top 10 finish after setting a blistering race pace as the second fastest car in the Supersports category.
The sportscar ace, however, was unable to show his full potential in the Supreme Racing Radical SR3 due to the second round being cancelled on Friday afternoon. Undertaking his first ever full Radical UK Cup campaign alongside new teammate Andy Cummings, Ellis had an encouraging season start at Silverstone. After recording a top 10 finish and missing out on the Supersport podium battle thanks to a puncture, hopes were high for the 23 year-old to shine at Spa. The Supreme Racing duo were unable to join the majority of the field in testing earlier this week, leaving Cummings with only two practice sessions on Thursday to get to grips with the challenging Belgium track for the first time in what is his maiden season racing Radicals. Although the first international outing on the Radical calendar, as no championship points were on offer the team sensibly took the decision to limit tyre wear. After setting a steady pace in practice, the pair took on fresh tyres for qualifying but rather than improving their pace the new set produced significant understeer, which dramatically affected their lap times. With a drastic set-up review required overnight, Cummings took the challenge of starting race one on Friday morning without the privilege of a test run. Regardless, he took on the task with impressive ease. Cummings nailed only his second Radical start to charge from 20th in class and 40th on the overall grid to gain three places on the opening lap before a safety car period halted his progress. When racing resumed for just three laps, Cummings continued to master the new set-up to take a further slot before pitting from 16th in class. Despite his usual elongated pit stop as a Pro driver, Ellis joined the fray without losing class position, 30th overall amid the 50 car grid, and set about clawing back the big gaps which had naturally developed throughout the field. Immediately setting a blistering pace, the former British GT Champion consistently clocked up lap times some 4-5 seconds quicker than his fellow Supersports competitors. Second fastest in class only to one other car who had the luxury of a clear track, Ellis rapidly picked his way through the mid-field to move up to 12th in category. Ellis was about to mount his assault on the top 10 pack as the clock ticked down to the closing stages of the 40-minute enduro. He was hopeful of taking at least a few more places when the race leader nipped past at the final chicane to take the chequered flag, thereby robbing Ellis of a final lap charge by fractions of a second. After such a notable drive recovering from a disappointing qualifying session, Ellis was ready to make the most of his seventh in class grid slot for race two. Unfortunately the opportunity never arose due to a serious accident during qualifying for the Spa 1000km which caused the session to be red flagged and all subsequent racing to be cancelled. Bradley Ellis: “Testing went really well and we had a good first race showing really good pace so overall it’s been a positive event. It’s just a shame that qualifying didn’t quite go to plan. “We had the car well balanced on old tyres in testing but unlike the other teams we didn’t have the privilege of trying out our new tyres prior to qualifying and we suffered a major imbalance. There was nothing we could do apart from make adjustments for the first race which showed in the lap times as I was second fastest in class. “Andy did a great job, especially in the first corner. Unfortunately the safety car came out and stopped his charge but the changes we made gave him confidence to work his way through the pack. “At the start of my stint, the next car was seven seconds up the track but I was able to claw that back within a lap or so. Because it’s such a long lap you really don’t get many laps in your 20-minute stint so although I was much faster I ran out of laps to break into the gaggle of cars running from fifth to tenth place. It would have been good to have had the chance to break into that group. “The car felt good in the race. Every set-up change we made was a big step forward. We had one more significant change planned for race two but obviously we didn’t get the chance to implement that. I’m confident that change would have made a major difference so we’ll be trying that at Oulton Park.” Andy Cummings, Supreme Racing Teammate: “I had a great start, taking three places at the first corner, and went from strength-to-strength until the safety car came out. I then only had three racing laps until Brad took over but I managed to make up another place. We really made promising moves forward today so we’re naturally disappointed we didn’t race again but that was out of our control. We’ve got a lot to build on for the next round at Oulton Park.” Phil Bailey, Supreme Racing Team Manager: “We had a really positive first race here at Spa to bounce back from a tricky qualifying session. It’s a real shame we didn’t get to show what we could do in race two as we certainly had the potential to do really well, but we’ve got a lot of positives to take away from this event. Bradley and Andy are a solid pairing and it’s clear that as we get more races under our belt we’re just going to keep on getting stronger.” For full race results visit www.radicalsportscars.com -Ends- Media Contact Emma Spearing, Hazel PR: Mobile: +44 (0)7736 341828 E-mail: emma.spearing@hazelpr.com
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