Ollie Smith
Photo by: Gary Hawkins
There wasn’t much national motorsport in the UK last weekend, but even so there are four drivers moving up inside the top 10 of the Autosport National Rankings.
Junior Saloons ace Ollie Smith is the highest-placed of them. The Citroen Saxo-based series in which he competes was in action at Brands Hatch on the support card of the Touring Car Rewind extravaganza.
Of the three races, Smith won one of them and has therefore moved onto 11 victories for the season. This inches him up one place to third in the Rankings, level with second-placed Legends form man Chris Needham, who gets the verdict owing to his higher average grid size.
Needham and Smith are still adrift of leader Connor Kay, who had no opportunity to build upon his 13 Rankings wins at the weekend.
The Autosport National Rankings is based on the simple premise of totalling each driver’s wins in car races in the UK and Ireland across the season, with each counting equally – whether it be the 24-hour EnduroKa race at Anglesey or a Legends heat.
Next upwards mover behind Smith is Lewis Barker. He’s been doing extremely well this season in the 750MC’s Hot Hatch series, but branched out last weekend with his Honda Civic by taking part in the Racing Hondas double-header at Snetterton.
Jake McAleer
Photo by: Ollie Read
Barker won his class in both races and is therefore up nine places to sixth in the Rankings. Overall winner in those Racing Hondas events was Bob Barron, who therefore scythes his way up 29 positions to 18th.
The action on the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit last weekend has provided us with the other three upwards movers in the upper half of the Rankings top 50.
Jake McAleer continued on his merry winning way in the Porsche Club series, and his undefeated double at the home of the British Grand Prix in his 997S has hoisted him 17 places to eighth.
Gilbert Yates has dominated the Ferrari Challenge UK but stepped up to GT3 machinery to compete in the GT Cup, sharing a McLaren 720S with son Bradley. Their victory in one of the two races has lifted Yates Sr six positions to 10th.
Meanwhile, Ethan Hall has been the standout in the Boxster Cup series this season. They were merged with the Porsche Club brigade at Silverstone, with Hall’s double promoting him 25 positions to 21st.
All car races in the UK and Ireland are included except qualification/repechage, consolation and handicap races. No races in other countries.
Class wins are only counted when there are at least six starters in the class, except: when the race is part of a multi-stage event where six or more have taken part in earlier heats that feed into a semi-final or final; when multiple championships are merged in the same race, the ‘overall’ winner from the slower championship can count a class win as long as that championship has at least 10 starters across all classes.
Only classes divided by car characteristics are included, not those divided by driver characteristics such as ability, professional status, age, experience (for example rookie or pro-am classes).
Each race counts only once, so an overall winner’s class win is not added. Where there is a tie, overall wins take precedence. Where there is still a tie, average grid size for a driver’s wins determines the order.
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- The Autosport.com Team
Source: Autosport