Seventh heaven for Firth-Hughes? Not quite - It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Well, almost.
The Team WFR combination of Firth-Hughes did manage to finish Round 4 of the SPEED Series at Snetterton, but in seventh place, somewhat down on their great expectations.
With Warren Hughes securing pole position on a time of 1:05.291, almost a second ahead of the Bradshaw-Burrick combo, and setting a fastest lap of 1:05.170 (107.82mph/173.53kph) in Lap 118, eyes were on Hughes and his 2011 Sunoco Rolex 24 at Daytona Challenge co-driver Jody Firth to do well.
And so they did, leading from Lap 1 until Lap 76 until routine pitstops became anything but routine. Precious seconds ticked away there, which resulted in the Team WFR Ligier JS49 languishing in last place on exiting the pit lane until Lap 88.
From here, the car cautiously crept up the standings to as high as second place, before slipping down to penultimate place in Lap 124 and then retiring after 118 hard-fought laps.
Firth now sits in third place in the 2011 Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge standings on 72.75 average points. Jota Motorsport’s Simon Dolan and Sam Hancock, who won the weekend’s race, are the next highest SPEED drivers.
Their performance at Snetterton – where a Sunoco Race Fuels station has just opened – puts them on 63.75 and 60 average points and in positions six and eight respectively.
The lead of F3 wunderkind Jean-Eric Vergne, who has 98.13 average points, is commanding, although not unassailable.
Radical’s Ross Kaiser remains in second place with 86.25 average points. Had last weekend’s race at the Nürburgring been eligible for Challenge points, Kaiser would still have remained in second place, but with up to 97 average points.
The Radical race was, however, thrilling and the 360 Racing combo of Kaiser and Terrence Woodward won deservedly.
This year’s Sunoco Daytona Challenge is approaching the halfway mark. Look out for special interviews with some of the star drivers – all eager to win that coveted race seat in a Daytona Prototype at the 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona – in the next fortnight.
The Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge is a competition between racers in high-calibre Sunoco-fuelled race championships in Europe, such as the Avon Tyres British GT Championship, the Cooper Tires British F3 International, Radical UK Cup and SPEED Sports Prototype Series. The highest average points scorer wins a race seat in a Daytona Prototype in the 2011 Rolex 24 At Daytona and in doing so is in a position to win the race.
