and Aaron Steele and Adrian Churchill catch up with Richardson
Sunoco GRAND-AM Challenge are pleased to announce the official launch of our new Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 Challenge logo, which will soon be on all registered racers’ cars and race suits, with full backing from the Grand American Road Racing Association (GRAND-AM). The challenge’s early leader Jason Richardson has now been knocked off the top of the leader board by Adrian Churchill from PTC with Aaron Steele in MSV F3 Cup close behind.
The Sunoco GRAND-AM Challenge is a new and exciting challenge run alongside the Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge and has been developed to give more racers the opportunity to race at Daytona. The ultimate prize is a race-seat in the Continental Series GS class in the GRAND-AM 200 race at the same race weekend as the Rolex 24.
We are now able to announce official use of the new logo, which will be on all registered racers’ cars and race suits, and GRAND-AM have officially announced their support of the programme.
Anders Hildebrand, MD of Anglo American Oil Company said: ‘With the Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge now its third year it’s great to be able to run the Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 Challenge alongside this and give something back to club level racers. Despite the delay in the finalisation of the Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 Challenge, it’s fantastic to now be able to launch the final design of the logo.’
Series that are eligible for the Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 Challenge are: Britcar Production GTN, Legends 600, Mini Challenge, MSV F3 Cup, GT Cup and the Dunlop Production Touring Car Trophy. The last couple of months have seen the challenge leader board constantly change and now all registered series have a driver in the top 10. With just a few points separating the top 3 places - it really is all to play for!
Adrian Churchill from the Dunlop Production Touring Car Trophy had a fantastic second round at Snetterton and has stormed into the lead of the Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 Challenge. Churchill took points for 3 x race wins, a pole position and a fastest lap, increasing his average point score from 90 to 116 and taking over the lead from Jason Richardson in Mini Challenge.
Second place in the challenge currently lies with MSV F3 Cup racer Aaron Steele. After an unfortunate round at Donington, Steele came back with a bang and took 2 x race wins, 2 x fastest lap and 2 x pole positions at Snetterton in his last round – scoring maximum points towards the challenge.
Richardson who had been leading the challenge however decreased his average point score after taking a fourth and a fifth in this weekend’s second round of Mini Challenge at Oulton Park. Both reigning champion Lee Allen and 2009 champion Luke Caudle took the honors for the weekend. Caudle also received points for setting pole and a fastest lap.
Oulton Park also played host to the GT Cup this weekend where Sunoco powered Andy Ruhan increased his average point score by winning one race and also coming fourth in the second race; giving him overall sixth position in the standings.
The Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 Challenge really is all to play for with the standings changing after every race. The next events enabling registered racers to score points are:
Legends 600/28th & 29th May/Croft
GT Cup & Mini Challenge/5th & 6th June/Brands Hatch
MSV F3 Cup/11th & 12th June/Spa
Production Touring Car Trophy & Britcar Production/11th & 12th June/Thruxton
Current top 10 standings:
Standings/ Driver Name/ Team/ Series/ Average Points Per Round 1 Adrian Churchill Courtenay Sport PTC 116.00 2 Aaron Steele Grays Motorsport MSV F3 100.17 3 Jason Richardson Dart Motorsport MINI 87.50 4 Kevin Clarke Intersport Britcar Production 86.67 5 Stephen Treherne Handy Motorsport Legends 85.83 6 Andy Ruhan JMH GT Cup class 1 78.50 7 Wayne Gibson Intersport Britcar Production 66.67 8 Luke Caudle EXCELR8 MINI 63.75 9 Chris Needham MSV F3 63.50 The Sunoco GRAND-AM 200 Challenge is a competition between racers in Sunoco-fuelled race championships in Europe which are: GT Cup, Mini Challenge, Legends 600, MSV F3 Cup, Britcar Production and Dunlop Production Touring Cars. The highest average point’s scorer wins a race seat in an American Muscle car in the Continental Tire Challenge 2.5 hour support race before the Rolex 24 At Daytona including the pre-race test.
Anglo American Oil Company Ltd (AAOIL) is the European and Middle East distributor of Sunoco race fuels, Joe Gibbs Driven racing oils, PJ1 Track Bites and their own brand ‘R’ racing fuels and oils which is manufactured and produced by the company. AAOIL also promote and run the Sunoco Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge. With Sunoco racing fuels AAOIL is the official fuel supplier to the British F3 Series, British GT Championship, MSV F3 Cup, Mini Challenge, Legends, Britcar, GT Cup Masters, HSCC, Group C racing, Intersteps, Production Touring Car Trophy, the British Rally Championship and the British Superbikes.
GRAND-AM Road Racing, established in 1999, is located in Daytona Beach, Florida on the same corporate campus that is home to NASCAR, International Speedway Corporation) and Daytona International Speedway. GRAND-AM was acquired by NASCAR Holdings in late 2008 and operates now as one organisation, with resources such as marketing, research and public relations fully integrated into the NASCAR framework.
