Derek Johnston takes the lead in the Rolex 24 At Daytona Driver Challenge presented by Sunoco after a dramatic weekend’s action, despite not racing himself!
This past weekend saw more action than ever from competitors in the Rolex 24 At Daytona Driver Challenge presented by Sunoco, with British F3 and British GT racing at Rockingham and the SPEED Series at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.
First round winners Rob Garofall and Richard Bernans could only take second place in the SPEED Series, beaten by Barry Gates and Anthony Dunn, although they are still jointly second in the Challenge points' standings.
Meanwhile, at Rockingham the leading British F3 competitor, Daniel Ricciardo, did his chances no good by crashing out of the first race and finishing only 5th in the second, although he did manage to secure his first pole position for a useful 20 points. The hero of the hour was Nick Tandy, who took a first British F3 victory for himself and the JTR team barely more than two weeks after his older brother and the guiding light behind the team, Joe Tandy, lost his life in a road traffic accident. He moves up to 10th overall, with Ricciardo 6th. It was also the first non-Dallara win in BF3 for nearly a year as Nick is the sole Mygale runner in BF3 this year.
The biggest scorer of the weekend was Alan Simonsen, with pole position, two fastest laps and a race win in British GT. He jumps to 4th overall and has actually scored more points than anyone else, but it is the average number of points that counts. The Dynamic Dane could not have done more, fighting his way through the field to snatch the lead of race one with a handful of laps to go, then leading race two until the pit-stop, when the car was delayed by a gearbox problem.
However, the pair who gained most over the weekend were Radical UK Cup competitors, Derek Johnston, who took over the lead in the average points standings, and Roger Bromiley, who is now 5th overall, both without having raced at all!
The Driver Challenge continues unabated with British F3 competitors racing at Hockenheim this coming weekend and the Radical UK Cup having its third meeting at Brands Hatch. Surely there will be yet more big changes in the points table afterwards.
