Derek Johnston triumphs in the Rolex 24 At Daytona Driver Challenge presented by Sunoco and adds the Radical European Masters title to his Radical UK Cup championship win to score a memorable hat-trick
Although he was racing in Dijon, France at the time, Derek Johnston became the outright winner of the Rolex 24 At Daytona Driver Challenge presented by Sunoco yesterday when Rob Garofall’s gallant bid to overtake him in the average points table failed at Silverstone, where the SPEED Series held its final 3-hour race of the season.
Rob began the day knowing that to secure the biggest prize in British motorsport he had to finish 2nd in the race; otherwise be 3rd with pole position or fastest lap, or 4th with pole position and fastest lap.
The day began well when Rob took pole position on a difficult, drying track by just 0.170s from Sam Hancock. 20 points in the bag and now 3rd place in the race would be enough to win the Challenge.
Co-driver, Simon Phillips, took the first 75-minute spent and after eight laps he was in 7th place, half a minute or so behind the leader, but then the Safety Car came out and something totally unexpected happened. Simon found he was stuck in gear and had to pit. Most unusually the air pressure system that powers the paddle-shift gear change had failed and the compressor had to be replaced. This cost the pair the better part of nine minutes and, vitally, four laps. Simon completed his stint but had rejoined only just in front of the leader who soon put him another lap behind. Rob took over at the end of lap 53. Originally the plan had been to complete the race on one set of tyres, as the car was now six laps behind the leaders, the decision was taken to change to new wheels and tyres. Although this cost the pair another couple of laps, the plan was for Rob to go for fastest lap and secure another 20 points towards the Challenge Although the car was well down the order by now, there were three or four invitation class runners in front of them, so fourth place was still not an impossibility.
Rob was soon lapping hard and fast and briefly held fastest lap before it was snatched back, but what had been a very difficult task became impossible when the car failed to complete its 79th lap. Rob had pulled off at the exit of Copse with a wheel on the point of falling off. Eventually the car was recovered to the pits after a Safety Car intervention, another wheel was fitted and Rob rejoined the race, but a further 21 minutes had been lost (it felt like longer) and all that could be done was to salvage a few points towards to the Challenge, but not enough to be helpful.
In fact, Rob and Simon were ultimately eighteen laps down and finished 13th on the road, but discounting some invitation runners ahead of them helped their cause. The unlucky Rob dropped to 4th overall in the standings on 69 points. Derek Johnston won the Challenge with his existing score of 77.50 points, Daniel Ricciardo (British F3) was 2nd on 75.50 and Alan Simonsen (British GT) 3rd on 72.14 points.
Over in France, Derek Johnston was almost lost for words on hearing he had won the Challenge and simply exclaimed: “I can’t believe it!”, when given the fantastic news.
He had a conservative 5th place finish in Saturday’s race at Dijon, but buoyed by the news from Silverstone he and Stuart Moseley went out on Sunday to win the second race outright and secure the Radical European Masters title in the best way possible. It had been a stunningly successful weekend for the man from Nottingham and he was still struggling to come to terms with the enormity of his success. “Unbelievable” was the word that kept being repeated! In one weekend he had become the undisputed King of the Radicals in both the UK and Europe and won the biggest prize in British motorsport.
The Rolex 24 At Daytona Driver Challenge presented by Sunoco has been a driver challenge between Sunoco-fuelled series in Europe and the UK. During 2009 the drivers in the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series, the Avon Tyres British GT Championship, the Radical UK Cup and the SPEED sports prototype series have gone head-to-head against each other throughout the year collecting points for pole position, race results and fastest lap.The prize that Derek Johnston has won is a race-drive in a Daytona Prototype at the 2010 Rolex 24 At Daytona ® in a top team and the chance to race against the best sports cars racers in the world. Derek will also participate in a 3-day pre-season test session at the Daytona race track in January and become the ambassador for Grand AM and Sunoco in Europe. This amazing prize, valued as being worth $100,000, gives Derek Johnston a great chance not to only to race in a top team in one of the iconic 24-hour races in the world but also to win the race.
