Darryl O’Young battled back from an off in qualifying to secure his first Yokohama Independent podium finish of the 2013 campaign in the second race of the weekend in Slovakia.
O’Young was on his first qualifying lap when he went off the track at turn 9 and hit the wall, resulting in him failing to record a time in qualifying and thus lining up 22nd for both races.
“On the first lap of the qualifying session, I was going through Turn 9 and got a oversteer on the exit of the turn sending me off through the grass and gravel. This put me into the tire wall at 160 kilometers per hour, my biggest crash ever in WTCC,” explains the Hong Kong racer.
The team got the #55 BMW 320TC rebuilt in time for race day and he repaid their efforts with a double points finish in the Yokohama Independents’ as well as an overall top 10 finish in the second race.
The opening race saw the 33 year old climb up the order to 14th overall before his tyres went off and he was unable to recover any more positions. This gave him 7th overall in the Yokohama Independents’ category.
He went even better in the second race and was up to 10th with half the race remaining. He was unable to recover any more positions as he got bottled up behind Mehdi Bennani and thus finished 10th overall and 3rd in the Yokohama Independents’.
“My car was handling very well and I had a very good race pace. After passing several cars on the standing start, I was able to pass several other cars throughout the race, advancing from P22 on the grid up to P10 by the end of the race. I was pleased to claim my first independent podium of the season and score some further World Championship points,” explained O’Young, who heads to Hungary for rounds 7 and 8 of the season 4th in the Yokohama Independents’ category.