Breakthrough finish for Bradley
Motorsport: Gravett claims second place in Vertu Motors Mini Challenge
Maidenhead’s Bradley Gravett enjoyed the best weekend of his racing career to date with a breakthrough podium finish as the Vertu Motors Mini Challenge headed to Brands Hatch for the second round of the campaign.
Gravett headed to his home circuit keen to build on the pace he had displayed in the opening meeting of the campaign at Donington Park two weeks earlier, where he had looked well-placed for a top-three finish before an unfortunate technical failure robbed him of potential silverware.
Despite tricky wet conditions in qualifying that left him and his rivals struggling for grip around much of the lap, he was able to set a number of impressively quick laps at the wheel of his EXCELR8 Motorsport-run car to secure a place on the second row of the grid for the opening race of the weekend.
P4 on the timesheets marked not only a new personal best in the headline JCW class, but also equalled the best result of Gravett's career to date – going back to his time in the Mini Challenge Cooper class three years ago.
Having made a lightning quick start, he soon found himself running third after one of the cars ahead was handed a time penalty, and a find move on Will Orton at Paddock Hill Bend saw him then grab second spot.
He was later reeled in by Orton and teammate Oliver Meadows, while a red flag prevented him from making another move for the podium, however, P4 still marked his best JCW result to date.
It wouldn’t take him long to better it.
Making the most of a poor start from Meadows in race two,
Gravett jumped into third and then held Jamie Osborne at bay to take the chequered flag in a fine third place. Gravett then received an unexpected bonus when he discovered that a late puncture for Dan Zelos had seen him pit from second spot – promoting Gravett an additional place in the result. The second-place finish marked the first podium result of
Bradley's racing career, and he was well positioned to add to it in race three when an unfortunate mechanical issue saw him forced into retirement whilst running in second.
Ahead of the next round of the championship in two weeks time at Snetterton, Gravett has now moved into the top 10 in the points once dropped scores are factored into play.
“What a weekend,” he admitted. “Even though the results from Donington Park hadn’t been as good as I had hoped, I knew heading to Brands Hatch that we had the potential to fight at the front of the field.
“After a productive Friday, we were able to take everything we had learned and convert it into a strong performance in qualifying, and I was delighted to score my best result to date as I knew it would set us up a good run in race one.
“Although I missed out on the podium, it was a really enjoyable race in difficult conditions, and the fact it was a new personal best result was a big boost in confidence ahead of Sunday.
“Race two is an experience I will never, ever forget and the whole reason why I wanted to get into a race car. It’s taken so much hard work to get into this position, and it's hard to find the words to describe the emotions I was feeling as the clock ticked down and then the chequered flag came out.
“I was in tears of joy on the slowing-down lap, so when I came back in and got told I was actually second, it just made it all the more memorable – and it was even more special to score my first-ever podium at my home circuit with my friends and family watching on.
“Okay, so it was a massive shame that I had to retire from race three, and it’s far from ideal to have used up both of my dropped scores so early in the season, but there is nothing that will take away from that podium finish.
“Now I’ve done it on