Breakell Racing produced a standout performance in the prestigious Silverstone Festival event last weekend (24-25 August), with Bradley Ellis and Andy Cummings securing a brilliant class podium finish in the Masters Endurance Legends.
Entering a Morgan-Pescarolo LMP2 car into one of the biggest and most prestigious historic racing events in the world for a second season running, the Lancashire-based team returned with fond memories of a phenomenal class win in their debut appearance last year.
The LMP2 had a new appearance to mark the 2024 festival, with a blue and white KCMG livery to match the one that adorned the car when it competed in the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours. It would be seen by a huge trackside crowd across the popular three-day event.
Lining up as part of a brilliant Masters Endurance Legends grid, which featured more than 35 prototypes and GT cars, Ellis and Cummings would once again establish themselves as a competitive force in the hotly-contested LMP2 class.
A great qualifying performance on Friday saw them finish seventh fastest overall and second of the LMP2 machinery. The opening race the next day took place in tricky wet conditions, with a brilliant start from Cummings seeing him rise up to fourth overall at one stage.
A strong performance from there netted them a fifth-place finish in class at the chequered flag. There was better to come in race two on Sunday, as they stormed forward from fifth to third in class for a richly-deserved podium finish.
James Breakell - Team Principal: “The Silverstone Festival is a fantastic celebration of historic racing and it was a pleasure to be part of the event for the second year in a row with Bradley, Andy and the brilliant Morgan-Pescarolo LMP2.
“It’s been an enjoyable project restoring, rebuilding and racing the prototype over the last couple of years and to enjoy another successful weekend on track with it is a great reward for the hard work that everyone in the team has put in.”
Building on their fantastic start to the 2024 Porsche Sprint Challenge GB season, where they secured nine class podium finishes across the opening two rounds, Breakell Racing have enjoyed further success in the latest two events at Croft (27-28 July) and Donington Park (24-25 August).
Reece Somerfield is contesting his second season in the championship, stepping up to race the new-for-2024 Cayman GT4 RS, while Ginetta graduate Karim Sekkat has stepped up for his debut Porsche season with the team in the established Clubsport model.
Sekkat was straight on the front-running pace in the CS Am class at Croft. After qualifying fourth, he put in a brilliant performance in the opening race to fight forward to a podium finish in second and almost scored another piece of silverware in the final race as he finished fourth.
For Somerfield, the highlight of the Croft weekend came in the opening race as a bold tyre call saw him take slicks on a wet-but-drying circuit. The gamble almost paid off as he charged through the field in the closing stages, posting the overall fastest lap of the race as he narrowly missed out on the RS Am podium.
The former Ginetta race-winner made a richly-deserved return to the Sprint Challenge GB rostrum at Donington Park though. A superb performance in the final race saw him charge forward from seventh on the grid to second for his fifth podium finish of the campaign.
Sekkat made a couple of trips to the podium himself in Leicestershire, moving his tally up to eight for the season. After being spun around by another driver on the opening lap of race one, a superb comeback drive netted him third place, before he rose one place higher to second next time out.
James Breakell: “After such a great start to the Porsche season, we’re delighted to have continued our successful run of results in recent rounds and really established ourselves as a competitive force in the championship with both the RS and Clubsport models.
“Reece is doing a brilliant job in the very competitive RS Am class and it was great to see him back on the podium at Donington Park, while Karim is continuing to make strong progress adapting to the Cayman each weekend and eight podiums from 12 races is a great return.”
Two rounds remain of the 2024 Porsche Sprint Challenge GB season, with the penultimate round coming up at Silverstone next month (21-22 September) before the season finale at Brands Hatch two weeks’ later (05-06 September).
Images from Jakob Ebrey Photography (Silverstone Festival) and Dan Bathie (Porsche GB).
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