DE LEON WINS AND TAKES CHARGE OF POINTS
Tom Wood and Daryl De Leon shared the victories in the Radical SR1 Cup at Oulton Park, with the latter taking control of the championship race ahead of the final meeting.
Wood – who is racing the University of Derby entry alongside his ADAC GT4 Germany commitments this season – didn’t put a wheel wrong in the opener, eventually recording victory by more than eight seconds. Cambridge-based De Leon spent much of the race fending of Frazer McFadden, while his nearest opponent in the points standings – Ben Caisley – couldn’t quite stay with the pair and finished fourth.
In race two, McFadden made a tremendous start from the outside of the second row, taking the lead from Wood around the outside into Hislops. Wood’s race disintegrated on the second lap, going over the grass at both chicanes and eventually pitting with a damper failure.
As the race wore on, De Leon put McFadden under increasing pressure, briefly taking the lead at half distance and he repeated the move at Lodge late on to seal the win, McFadden having started to make more mistakes. Caisley completed the podium, having gained on the two leaders as they scrapped.
The Radical Challenge had an international flavour, with the victories shared by Dane Noah Degnbol and Japanese driver Dougie Bolger. Degnbol’s victory in the opening contest allowed him to narrow the gap to James Lay in the championship to just six points – for a few hours at least. Lay followed Degnbol home, but didn’t mount a serious attack.
Degnbol’s title aspirations took a blow in the second race when he crashed out at Druids shortly after making his mandatory pitstop. Lay had lost a lot of time in his stops, and was 12th after a second safety car period in quick succession. He had a tough time fighting back to fifth, while Bolger the beneficiary of the stops – came out in front and then eased further ahead of Anthony Ayres.
The 2021 champion Tom Stoten took victory in the only Sports 2000 endurance contest of the year, the Gunn driver being classified nearly a minute clear of the rest. That gap was exaggerated by a 30s penalty for Joshua Law for a non-compliant pitstop, but it was still enough for MCR S2N driver Law to wrap up the championship with a meeting to spare, by virtue of finishing ahead of Richard Johnson.
Alex Champkin dominated Clubmans Sports Prototypes with two wins in his Phantom, moving to the top of the points with Jarred Lester experiencing clutch issues and Cody Tree a front wishbone failure.
Jordan Harrison was a double winner in Classic Formula Ford, with Henry Chart chasing him in the opener and Rick Morris second later on, having fended off the recovering Joseph Ahrens for the final four laps.