Jade Racing Team driver Ella headed into the Final round as one-of-three drivers in contention for the KZ2 British Kart Championship at Kimbolton.
Ella was blisteringly fast in all practice sessions, placing in the top-three of all sessions bar one – in the lead up to the important final round Qualifying.
Despite leading the train of karts, without a slipstream – Ella set the 2nd fastest time, earning herself a spot on the front-row and ahead of all her main rivals in the championship.
Heat 1 on Sunday morning saw Ella make a brilliant start, taking the lead into Turn 1 as the karts filtered into action.
At the end of the opening lap, Ella was pushed down to P2 following a lunge from a rival driver pushing her down a position.
The tightly contested fight for the Top-6 positions raged on throughout the race, with multiple position changes and defensive moves blunted her progress to the front of the pack.
Later on in the race, Ella was pushed wide at Turn 1 that allowed her main rival for the championship ahead of her. She set of in hot pursuit to regain her position, but ran out of laps and finished the opening heat in P5.
The second heat saw Ella once again make a good start, holding P2 in the opening laps – before a divebomb from into Kestrel Corner dropped her to P3.
The battle at the front was once again fierce, but Ella held firm brilliantly - balancing outright speed with a strong defence, to beat her main rivals for the title and finish P4 at the finish.
Ella started the Final from P5, alongside her now only remaining rival for the championship – teammate Oliver Stewart.
She made another great start, but was baulked on the inside into Turn 1 – undoing her strong start as a number of driver’s were able to sneak around the outside, dropping Ella to P6.
By Lap 2, she immediately regained P5 and set herself on chasing Ollie down for the title.
Ella knew she had to beat Oliver and finish on the podium to become British Champion – so she gave it absolutely everything to get past and close that gap.
Despite her best efforts, Oliver put up a robust defensive drive – frustratingly preventing Ella to make progress and push forward.
After a tense and nail-biting final, Ella finished P5 at the chequered flag and secured P2 and the Vice-Champion status of the KZ2 British Kart Championship, alongside a 1-2 in the championship for Jade Racing Team.
Despite missing out on the championship in a chaotic final round, Ella rounded out another fantastically strong season in the premier class in British Karting – after being a title contender all the way through the season, a race winner, pole sitter and multiple podium finishes in the championship.
Attention now heads forward to the next chapter for Ella in her career – stay tuned for further updates in the not-so-distant future!
