Bradley Ellis made a brave return to racing just a week after his neck-breaking shunt at Thruxton, but was disappointed not to be challenging for FIA GT3 European Cup success with the Matech Ford GT40 at Oschersleben.
The Briton suffered a compression fracture to his sixth vertebra after a dramatic off in the British GT round at Thruxton, but defied expert opinion to get back into the cockpit of the Ford in an effort to maintain the championship challenge he and co-driver Alex Mortimer set up with double victory at Monza earlier in the year.
Despite Ellis' impressive recovery and determination to get back in the race seat, the pair endured a challenging weekend that left them without points. Since the Monza success, the Matech entry had been saddled with a further 70kg of ballast, taking its total to a whopping 140kg and the penalty was more than a burden as the pair struggled with the excessive weight.
However, although Mortimer was taken out at the first corner while leading round five, and brake failure ruined their round six chances, Ellis remains third and Mortimer forth in the title fight.
Just four days after being discharged from hospital, Ellis was cleared by doctors to take the wheel of the Ford, as practice provided a first chance for both drivers to familiarise themselves with the challenging Oschersleben circuit. Following overnight rain, a damp track then greeted Mortimer for qualifying, where he finished fifth fastest before the sun emerged, and temperatures rose to deliver a quicker second session, where Ellis managed the tenth fastest time.
The sun was still shining on Saturday afternoon as the lights went green for round five and Mortimer made a brilliant start from the third row to take the lead in to the first corner. However, chaos reined entering Hotel corner and, on the outside from turn one, Christopher Haase's Lamborghini made contact with Marcello Zani's Aston Martin, sandwiching the Italian against Mortimer.
The Aston Martin's bodywork locked with the rear of the Ford, spearing Mortimer across the grass and into the tyre wall on the inside of the corner and, with damaged steering and tracking, the Matech entry's race was run. However, with the top five championship contenders also failing to score, the standings thankfully remained unchanged.
Repairs to the Ford GT, including a new steering arm, allowed Ellis to take to the grid for round six on Sunday and, with Saturday's first corner melee in mind, the driver made a sensible start, finishing lap one in 13th spot.
He soon got into the groove, however, and was up to eleventh by the end of lap five but, with tenth-placed Dino Lunardi in his sights, the Ford GT suffered brake failure, forcing Ellis to brake 100-150 metres earlier than before, which allowed Nicki Cadei past on lap eight. Despite the problem, Ellis did a valiant job of staying in the fray and even re-took Cadei following a mistake from the Italian, to regain eleventh place on lap eleven but, as the brake situation failed to improve, he had little choice in dropping back to 13th as the race wore on.
Mortimer rejoined after Matech's mandatory pit-stop just as the safety car was called out and picked up the field in front of the #21 Ford. Instead of being allowed past the safety car to circulate and take up his correct track position, Mortimer was kept behind, effectively putting the Matech pairing one lap down as other teams took the advantage to pit. When the safety car finally came in, there was little Mortimer could do, with no brakes and 140kg of ballast on board, to improve his position and the Ford GT finished 17th.
“After all the struggle and effort to actually get to Germany and be allowed to race at Oschersleben, it's been a bit of a disappointing weekend,” Ellis sighed, “We didn't come here aiming to win, but to consolidate our championship position and score some points. As it turns out, most of the top championship contenders also suffered non-point scoring finishes, which still leaves me third and Alex fourth.
"It felt good to be back in a racecar but now I can look forward to resting until the next rounds at Brno in September.”
