Croydon's Bradley Ellis had a weekend littered with bad luck in his firstever race at Brands Hatch for rounds five and six of the Formula Renault UKChampionship, 4 & 5 June. Despite being his home circuit, the 17-year-oldhad never raced at Brands Hatch before and had just one test session priorto the double-header meeting.
The Croydon teenager's first qualifying session at the Kent track waslooking promising until halfway through when a racing incident caused JeremyMetcalfe's car to launch over the top of Ellis at Druids. Changes to theset-up to correct over-steer for the second session unfortunately did notpay off. Despite a challenging day, Ellis managed to qualify 20th for bothrounds.
Overcast but dry conditions greeted the Mark Burdett Motorsport team onSunday morning. A good start allowed Ellis to take two places going intoPaddock Hill bend, promoting him to 18th by the end of lap one. Challenginghard, he then took Jean Robert Niogret (F) at Druids and moved up to 17th onlap four.
With only one set of tyres per race weekend, Ellis began to struggle halfwaythrough the 24-lap race and dropped two places going into to Clearways onlap 12. Managing to keep a constant pace and in touch with the seven-cartrain battling for 11th spot, he fought back to finish 18th.
Disaster struck for Ellis on the grid for round six when the onboardcomputer failed at the end of the rolling lap, meaning he was unable toselect the correct gear or read the engine revs for the start. After a quickrecovery from stalling he set about hunting down the rest of the pack.However, still without an onboard computer and effectively driving blind,the south Londoner could only hold 25th position.
A safety car period on lap 12 gave Ellis his only opportunity to improve hissituation. Cleverly, he completely shut off the car, pumps and computer ashe went through Paddock Hill bend. With the car completely reset and thecomputer system successfully restored, Ellis pushed as hard as possible inthe cooling conditions with little grip to finish 21st.
Following the race it was confirmed that one of the transponders on the pitwall located directly opposite Ellis' grid position caused his onboardcomputer systems to fail.
"This wasn't the result we were looking for at our home race, luck justdidn't seem to be on our side," said Ellis. "However, this was our firsttime at Brands Hatch and we have learnt a lot. I am confident it will be adifferent result when we return here in October."
Ellis is next in action at Oulton Park on 19 June, when he will also becelebrating his 18th birthday.
For information on the Formula Renault UK Championship, visit www.renaultsport.co.uk built by Racecar
