Daniel Ricciardo throws down the gauntlet at Brands Hatch in a dramatic bid to win the Rolex 24 At Daytona Driver Challenge presented by Sunoco and sweeps aside British GT rival, Alan Simonsen
Daniel Ricciardo has been the favourite to win this year’s British F3 International Series title since long before the season began and he duly secured that at the Algarve circuit in Portugal last weekend, but a string of good results at recent meetings has increasingly made him a contender for the Rolex 24 At Daytona Driver Challenge presented by Sunoco.
His last opportunity to score big points came at Brands Hatch this last weekend, and qualifying could not have gone better with two pole positions putting 40 points in the bag on Saturday.
Race 1 continued the successful trend in with a win from lights to flag by the biggest margin seen in a British F3 race this year. Fastest lap as well meant Daniel had scored another 120 points towards the Challenge, so much depended on Race 2.
Sadly, Daniel fell victim to the traditional problem that faces drivers on pole position at Brands Hatch and was bogged down with wheelspin. This allowed his team-mate, Max Chilton, to take the lead and the win, whilst Daniel was stuck in 4th place on the road, although Marcus Ericson just ahead of him was an Invitation Class driver and therefore ineligible for points. The Formula 3 cars are so effective around the Brands Hatch GP circuit that it would take a mistake by one of the drivers ahead of him to allow Daniel to improve his position, but none was forthcoming, so 3rd in the points it was. Even so, he scored another 55 Challenge points, bringing his total for the weekend to a highly impressive 215 points. The really frustrating fact is that if Daniel had repeated his Race 1 success, he would now be tied on points for the overall lead of the Challenge!
Even so was enough to promote him to 2nd place in the average points' standings, overtaking Alan Simonsen from British GT, who tried as hard he could, improving his score from 66.25 to 72.14, but failing to withstand Daniel’s charge. For the moment Daniel is also ahead of Derek Johnston from the Radical UK Cup, who is on an average of 73 points. Rob Garofall from the Speed Series remains in the lead on 78.75 points and for him it is more a question of not letting his average points score drop when the Speed Series has its final meeting on October 10th. The strain on him for the next three weeks will be intense.
The Radical UK Cup racers and Derek Johnston in particular will be out this coming weekend at Snetterton for their last chance to improve or maintain their scores. The way the points work, Derek has to win both races (or better) to regain his advantage over Daniel Ricciardo, so the pressure will be very much on him.
Whatever happens, Daniel Ricciardo is now assured of a place in the top three and that means that he will definitely be making the trip to Daytona in February, at worst as a spectator, but at best as the winner of the Challenge if that’s how the various points' permutations work out.
