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Derek Johnston leads race to Daytona

22nd May 2009

Derek Johnston (Radical UK Cup) takes a firm grip on the lead of the Rolex 24 At Daytona Driver Challenge presented by Sunoco after a dramatic weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.

Both the Avon Tyres British GT Championship and the combined Radical European Masters and Radical UK Cup raced at Spa-Francorchamps over the weekend of 8th-10th May. Derek Johnston in the Radical UK Cup came out on top with two class wins (second overall), one of which was a typically dramatic Spa "heavens open" affair. Unfortunately for him, of the forty cars on the grid only 9 cars were registered for the Rolex 24 At Daytona Challenge, which meant that even though Derek, racing with the experienced Stuart Moseley, he could only count 90% of his maximum scores for winning.

The British GT Championship was exceptionally dramatic with the previous  Driver Challenge leader, Stuart Hall, suffering a drive-through penalty in race one (for a pit stop that was just one second less than the prescribed minimum) and then crashing out his Mosler in race two in the opening misty and slippery first quarter of the one hour race. This means that he has dropped from the top of the leader board with an average 120 points to 67.5 and 4th overall in the Driver Challenge standings. 

Daniel Ricciardo from British F3 is now second in the standings behind Johnston followed by Allan Simonsen from British GT.