Darryl O’Young opened his points scoring account for the 2012 World Touring Car Championship in the first race of the weekend at Valencia, round three of the season.
Qualifying saw the Special Tuning Racing driver end up twelfth fastest at the end of the session, having been sixth fastest at the end of the first segment.
“We have made a lot of progress since Monza,” explained O’Young. “SEAT Sport has done a great job to improve the reliability of the engine and I ran trouble free the entire weekend. The SEAT Leon 1.6T has shown great potential and I look forward to the season ahead.”
Having seen his chances at Monza go up in flames, O’Young was back behind the wheel of the same car in Spain and he finished tenth in round three after qualifying twelfth. This left the Canadian born Hong Kong racer fourth in the Yokohama Independents category.
“I drove a consistent race and scored my first world championship point of the season,” said O’Young.
Round four saw O’Young retire after an incident involving the Lukoil Racing Team car of Gabriele Tarquini. A piece of the flat floor from the #3 SEAT Leon broke off and lodged itself on O’Young’s front bumper. This meant that the entire cooling radiator was blocked and the thirty two year old was forced to stop after four racing laps to prevent another engine blowing up.
“I can’t explain how unlucky it was, it was just unbelievable,” said O’Young, who turns his attentions to his FIA GT1 World Championship debut this weekend at the French circuit of Nogaro.
The next WTCC race weekend for O’Young is the trip to Africa and the Marrakech street circuit over the 14/15 April. It will be the third running of the African event, having made its debut in 2009.