Upminster youngster enjoys Easter weekend success

Upminster’s Connor Mills showed his class at Brands Hatch over the Easter weekend and declared himself happy with his start to the new racing season.

The 19 year-old was competing in the UK National Legends series, a support race to the British Truck Racing Championship.

And last season’s rookie champion set out to demonstrate his intentions of taking the 2016 title with a great display of controlled driving in difficult weather conditions.

Driving a Legends 34 Ford Coupe 1250, Mills dominated Saturday’s practice by taking first place in both sessions, setting the pace for the main events ahead of many experienced drivers.

It was a sign of things to come and Mills said: “Overall, I had four wins and five out of six podium finishes, so the weekend went as planned and I’m happy with the start of the season.”

Sunday started off wet, but in drying conditions Mills again took first place in qualifying.

He added: “It went really well. Sunday we won all three races, all of which were grid 21, which is what we wanted so it was really good.”

Mills started from fifth on the grid in Sunday’s first race, but very quickly caught up with the leaders and continued well to win the race by 3.026 seconds.

The talented teenage started in 10th for the second race, but driving on and above the limit he picked his way steadily through the field, navigating his Legend into the lead.

Mills finally took the chequered flag 3.118 seconds ahead of his nearest rival and also set the fastest lap of the race of 1min 07.336sec at 64.58mph.

Starting from 15th on the grid for race three, Mills again took charge and on a drying track he crossed the line in first position again, just 0.237secs clear.

“Monday we had a second and first place finish, but on my second race we had some engine issues so that ended in a DNF,” he added.

After qualifying first on a dry Monday, Mills started the first race from ninth and managed to finish second, again setting a fastest lap time of 55.706secs at 78.06mph.

In his second race he again set the fastest lap time of 56.0secs at 77.65mph, but could not finish.

Mills bounced back in the third and final race as he reproduced his earlier form and from 3rd place took another win by 5.636sec, with another fastest lap of 1.04.038 at 67.90mph.

Being rookie champion last season has given Mills and his team hunger for more and he added: “The aim for the season is to win the championship really, that’s all. I was rookie champ last year, but this year I want to win the whole thing.”