A promising start for Ladell

WDE Motorsport's Charlie Ladell has had a promising start to his career in the Courier Connections Renault UK Clio Cup, with the 17 year old finishing consistently in the points since making his debut in the championship at Oulton Park for rounds 7 and 8.

After another strong weekend during rounds 15 and 16 at Rockingham, I caught up with him to find out how he's found the switch from the Fiesta Championship to the Clio Cup.

"It's a steep learning curve" he told me, "the quality of the drivers in the Clio Cup is as high as any other championship in the country so I've had to adapt quickly in order to compete with the rest of the grid, and also the Clio's different to what I've been used to driving in the Fiesta Championship so it's taken me a little while to adapt to it but I'm definitely getting there now and the results are starting to come our way".

With strong results becoming more consistent, Charlie admitted that the turning point in his season came at Snetterton; "My most memorable round so far has got to be Snetterton, I had really good pace there and managed to take a 4th place finish, my best result of the season to date, and I just hope that I can continue to finish strongly and possibly go one step further".

Charlie made his debut in the Clio Cup with WDE Motorsport, a team being run by championship veteran Paul Rivett, but he explained that his partnership with the team has been going on longer than this season. He told me "I've been working with WDE Motorsport since the start of 2012, and I won the Fiesta Junior Championship with the team that same year so I have a great relationship with everyone there, Paul is great to work with too and I definitely benefit from his vast experience, not just from the championship but his race craft as well, and he's really helped my progress as a driver, certainly much quicker than if I was doing it on my own."

After joining the season part way through the championship, Charlie has confirmed that he will be running in the championship full time next season with WDE Motorsport, presumably alongside team mate and manager Paul Rivett, and is hoping that he will be able to battle for race wins over the course of next season. As for the end of this season at Brands Hatch in four weeks time, Charlie's ambitions are more modest; "We've had a great season so far so for the Brands finale it'd be great if we could get in the top 5 in both rounds, I'm confident I've got the pace in order to do it, and if I get the chance I'd love to be fighting it out for a spot on the podium".

Written and interviewed by Alan Faulkner
Photo Credit: DR Hurrell Photographs