Media Release: Ellis Scores Solid Points At Donington Park

8/14/2011 6:12 PM EST

After a rare DNF last time out at Brands Hatch, hopes were high for Ellis and teammate Andy Cummings to recover championship points at Donington Park and the Supreme Racing duo didn’t disappoint.

Armed with a new Radical SR3 competing in only its second race weekend, Ellis put in a strong qualifying session to secure 10th overall and sixth in class despite spending the session scrubbing-in new tyres.

Lining up 17th on the grid, and 13th in class for round 11, Cummings moved up to 16th place but then dropped down the order partly due to a displaced diffuser causing the car to lose aero grip. Although adjusting to the situation, the field had already stretched out around the 1.9791-mile National circuit making it hard to regain lost ground, but Cummings recovered to 17th overall before handing over to Ellis.

The compulsory elongated pit stop, due to Ellis’ professional driver status, meant their closest rivals benefited from a 15 second advantage. Joining the action one lap down, the 24 year-old worked his way up to 15th overall and 12th in class halfway through his stint.

Thanks to consistent lap times in the 1minute 7second margin, the Croydon-born racer took the #72 SR3 on lap 26 and then made light work of slashing Anthony Dunn’s five second advantage in three laps to take 10th in the Supersport category, 13th overall on lap 30.

With his next target, Andrew Ferguson, 12 seconds up the track and just two minutes remaining Ellis was left with an impossible mission to take ninth in class. In another characteristic charge to the chequered flag, the former British GT Champion smashed the gap to just 1.5 seconds, clocking up his personal best lap time, fourth quickest in class, to cement his 10th place Supersport finish.

Round 12 on Sunday afternoon brought more mixed fortunes. A great start propelled Ellis up to seventh overall and fifth in class before a short safety car period on lap one. Racing rapidly resumed and although he had to give way to the recovering SR8 of Roger Green, Ellis continued to press the Radical SR3 of Jeremy Ferguson for fourth.

The sportscar ace timed his move to perfection, taking the place just two corners prior to a second full course caution with 22 minutes to go. Falling just before the pit stop window, the second safety car caused the field to close up which left the Supreme Racing crew at a disadvantage ahead of their obligatory extended stop.

Cummings subsequently joined the race 11th overall as the field went back to green flag racing with around 15 minutes remaining. With steadily improving lap times, Cummings kept in contention with the mid-field, moving up to 10th overall and seventh in class by the chequered flag to secure a solid points-finish ahead of championship rivals.

“It’s been a bit of a mixed weekend but we’ve put some good points on the board,” said Ellis. “The car has been pretty strong today and I certainly showed our outright pace on a clear track, so we’ve made a lot of progress in what is still a brand new car.”

“Overtaking in a Radical SR3 at Donington Park is pretty tricky. It’s hard to reduce big gaps in such a closely-matched field and the short breaking zones mean you lose aero grip when closing on another car, making it impossible to pass. Consequently our dragging diffuser was a bit of an issue in race one, so we did really well.

“We fixed that for race two but we were a bit unlucky with the second safety car coming just before the pit stops, where we’ll always be at a disadvantage as ours take 15 seconds longer. Regardless, we kept everything together to take points over our closest championship rivals and that leaves us in a promising position ahead of the final rounds at Snetterton where I’m hoping to finish the season with another strong performance.”

For full race results and further information visit www.tsl-timing.com and www.radicalsportscars.com

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