Ellis and Richardson race to Brands Hatch victory

Because of delays in the solo races earlier on Saturday, the sidecars got the thin edge of the wedge and their race was reduced to six laps instead of the planned 12.

There were drops of rain falling as they completed the warm-up lap, but the expected rain didn’t materialise.

Ellis/Richardson set off from the second row and immediately shot away to take up fourth place.

They looked set to finish the race in that position, but on the final lap the two leading outfits tangled and crashed, bringing a red flag to end the race early with Ellis/Richardson awarded second place and 20 championship points.

With the top 10 finishers in race one being reversed on the grid for race two on Sunday, Ellis/Richardson started from the fifth row and made a great start, up to third on the first lap.

They took the lead on lap two and were never challenged taking victory by more than a second from the Christie boys.

“That was a good result considering I have been struggling with flu all weekend,” Ellis said.

“It was a bit of a boring race as I was out front all the time, but it’s nice to just be able to get my head down and go.

“I felt so ill and don’t think I could have entered into a battle with anyone for the win.”

Meanwhile, fresh from their success at the Isle of Man TT, Bryan/Hyde began from the seventh row.

They were 10th on the opening lap before moving through to ninth on the next which they held until the red flag.

The DNFs of the leading two elevated Bryan/Hyde up to seventh place for nine championship points.

They began the next race from the second row, but were barged wide at the first corner and lost ground back to seventh.

They dropped back to eighth and on the final lap were passed by Walker/Christie to cross the finish line in ninth position.

Ellis/Richardson picked up 45 championship points from their two races and moved up to second in the standings on 54 points, while Bryan/Hyde are seventh on 26.