Darryl O’Young writes off independents’ championship

ROAL Motorsport’s Darryl O’Young has said he’s switching his focus to race wins in the Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy category instead of the title, with the category being dominated this year by Nika Racing and bamboo-engineering’s Chevrolet Cruzes.

The 33-year-old has endured a tough season in the Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy, and is still chasing his first independents’ class victory in a similar vein to last season, where his first (and second) class victories came at the season ending race at Macau after the switch back to bamboo-engineering’s Chevrolet.

O’Young’s currently placed sixth in the standings, with just 13 points separating the top three BMW drivers, of which Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani is the highest placed, but the three Chevrolets of Michel Nykjaer, James Nash and Alex MacDowall are comfortably in front and look set to secure the top three in the classification without much challenge this season.

“I am not looking at the season point standings anymore,” said O’Young. “I only care about winning races and getting on the overall podium. I won’t let a bad season mentally stand in my way to succeed, so I will fight each and every time I am in the car until I get there.”