This article first appeared in the March, 2016 edition of SportsCar Magazine. SCCA members can read the current and past editions of SportCar digitally here after logging into their account; To become an SCCA member and get SportsCar mailed to your home address monthly in addition to the digital editions, click here.
Matthew Ellam
San Francisco Region
Member Since 2005
Last year, 2015, was a good year for Matthew “Matt” Ellam. Yes, after a half dozen tries, the 24-year-old San Francisco Region member won his first Solo title. But also, late last year, he married his sweetheart, Katelynn Bray, another reason that 2015 will go down as a banner year in the Ellam books.
A graduate of Cal Poly Pomona and now a Silicon Valley electrical engineer, Ellam prevailed in B Modified at the 2015 Tire Rack Solo National Championships presented by Garmin VIRB over a strong 14-car field that included his dad, seven-time National Champion Tom Ellam, and fellow contender Clemens Burger, 2014’s B Mod champion, who kept the pressure on Ellam but experienced a mechanical failure just three turns from the finish of his final run, thus ensuring Ellam’s top spot.
An SCCA member since 2005, Ellam began in karts (FJB and FJA) and graduated to the family Mazda RX-3 in 2007 when he turned 16. At his first Solo Nationals in 2009, he co-drove a Mazda MX-5 with Chris Kannan in C Stock and finished fourth. In the years since, he has recorded a fourth in EP with the senior Ellam (2010), a DNF in 2011 (mechanical failure), and eighth and ninth, respectively, in XP (2012 and 2013). In 2014, he finished seventh in XP after he “choked” on the third run.
“I coulda, shoulda, woulda got fourth,” he recalls. The win last year was sweet, Ellam says, adding that his dad “has taught me everything I know.”
How does Ellam compare the cars he’s driven at the Solo Nationals, and what is his favorite? Ah, he says, “That’s a good question.”
The MX-5 was well sorted, responsive, and easy to drive, he continues. The family RX-3 has more power, a great yee-haw factor, and requires more finesse than the MX-5. And the Omnifab Cheetah, which carried him to his 2015 B Mod title is, well, not unlike a kart.
As with many young members from SCCA families, Ellam grew up watching CART and F1. “I was first introduced to autocross by my dad, who has been autocrossing for 25-plus years,” he says.
For his family, Ellam adds, racing is in their blood, whether as competitors or spectators. “Friends think it’s cool,” he notes. “I’ve gotten a couple of them hooked on autocrossing, and I have to recruit more.”
Now, of course, the Ellam family includes Katelynn, a preschool teacher, who also exhibits an interest in motorsports. “When we first started dating, one of her suggestions was that we go karting, so I was like, ‘Oh, this girl’s pretty cool,’” Ellam says, adding that a short-term goal for Ellam Racing, now that he is no longer a poor, cash-strapped college student, is acquiring a car that Katelynn can run as a novice autocrosser before turning her loose with the RX-3, the Cheetah, or another Solo-prepared racecar.
“I used to have a stock RX-8. I got her in the car and did a couple of laps with her,” he says. “She really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I had to sell the car – school and everything – so we really don’t have a car for her to cut her teeth on.”
Also on the agenda, although probably not in anything resembling the near future, is the question of adding Club Racing to the family’s motorsports program, Ellam says. “Every year that’s one of the debates coming back from Nationals,” he says. “Should we get a Spec Miata? We’ve talked about it, but based on our schedules and the wear and tear on the car and the money side of things, it may not be in the cards, but who knows what the future holds.”
For now, he remains happily “stuck at the hip with autocross,” Ellam adds. His family does it, his friends participate, and his local series is a great place to compete. If, down the line there’s an addition to the Ellam family racing effort, it might first be track days. “That’s probably more realistic,” Ellam says.
Words by James Heine
Images by Rupert Berrington
