Kyle Reid maintained his stranglehold on this year’s Sunoco 240 Challenge last weekend at Silverstone where a further victory, fastest lap and pole positions helped Mini Challenge Cooper Pro’s runaway leader remain on course for a fully-funded GT4 seat in the 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona’s support race.
With the next round of Sunoco Whelen Challenge-eligible series not in action until early July, all eyes were on Silverstone where both the Mini Challenge Cooper Pro and F3 Cup championships had assembled for their latest 240 outings.
Reid arrived at the event on 124 points, 21.78 more than nearest rival Steve Burgess whose tricky recent Radical Challenge UK appearance at Spa had helped the Mini ace inherit a comfortable advantage.
Reid’s season average was so good – drivers can accumulate a maximum 140 points per race – that only a similarly strong showing at Silverstone would keep him on course for the highest score in the competition’s 10-year history. And although he was beaten for the first time this year, a victory to go with second place, two pole positons and a fastest lap meant his overall total was trimmed by just 0.43 points.
Race 2 victory went to Robbie Dalgleish, whose earlier podium and fastest lap also helped increase his season’s average by more than five points. That vaulted the JRD Motors driver up to fifth overall behind Dominic Jackson (Radical Challenge UK) and Kelvin Fletcher (British GT4 Am).
F3 Cup’s unpredictable season also continued at Silverstone where the spread of winners, podium finishers, pole positons and fastest laps again prevented a leading Sunoco 240 Challenge contender from emerging.
Stuart Wiltshire started and ended the weekend as the championship’s best placed representative, albeit seven positions and 11.5 points lower than where he started after only scoring points for two podiums. On the flipside two wins and a fastest lap helped Cian Carey jump 20 places to 14th, while former front-runner Shane Kelly is one spot further back after suffering another inconsistent outing.