Alexander Ellis (born September 25, 1991) is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

racing driver from

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. Alex Ellis began racing in 2005 in go-karts at the age of 14. After a successful foray into

karting Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motor ...

, Ellis participated in a 1.2L Formula Vee series in Canada in 2008 and won the rookie championship, finishing second overall despite missing the final three races of the season due to driving commitments in Europe. At the end of 2008, Alex won the prestigious Formula BMW Junior Scholarship - a multi-weekend shootout between international drivers, held in Valencia, Spain. This paved the way for 2009 where he drove as a BMW Junior Driver and moved to Formula BMW Americas driving for Autotecnica. As a rookie, Alex finished sixth in points with a best finish of second at

Road America Road America is a motorsport Road racing, road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the IndyCar Series, IMSA SportsCar Championship, Sports Car Club ...

. Additionally, he scored three podiums, three fastest laps, and captured a pole at

Lime Rock Park Lime Rock Park is a natural-terrain motorsport road racing venue located in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States, a hamlet in the town of Salisbury, Connecticut, Salisbury, in the state's northwest corner. Built in 1956, it is the nation's thi ...

in the wet. Alex's racing continued to be funded in 2010 by winning another driver shootout, this time in San Francisco, California. He went on to win the Jim Russell "Race of Champions" title, winning a chance to make his

Firestone Indy Lights Indy NXT (pronounced "Indy Next"), previously Indy Lights, is an American developmental automobile racing series sanctioned by IndyCar, currently known as INDY NXT by Firestone for sponsorship reasons. Indy NXT is the highest step on the Road ...

debut on August 22 at

Infineon Raceway Sonoma Raceway (originally known as Sears Point Raceway, Golden State International Raceway and Infineon Technologies, Infineon Raceway) is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the southern Sonoma Mountains of Sonoma County, Cal ...

driving for

Sam Schmidt Motorsports The IndyCar Series operation of McLaren, competing as Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team due to sponsorship, is based in Indianapolis and was founded by former IndyCar driver Sam Schmidt in 2001 as Sam Schmidt Motorsports (SSM). The team operates the N ...

. Racing at the highest level of his career, he impressed as a rookie, running the majority of the race in P7 before retiring due to mechanical failure.Alex Ellis wins Jim Russell "Race of Champions" title
''Racer'', August 7, 2010, Retrieved 2010-08-10

Indy Lights

References

External links

Alex Ellis official website
1991 births Racing drivers from Ontario Indy Lights drivers Formula BMW USA drivers Sportspeople from St. Catharines Living people Arrow McLaren SP drivers Canadian racing drivers {{Canada-autoracing-bio-stub