McInerney on the move in National Rankings

For the second week running, it’s a youngster from the junior tin-top realm who is the highest-placed riser in the Autosport National Rankings.

Last week it was Junior Saloon ace Ollie Smith moving up into sixth position, but this time around it’s Fiesta Junior hotshot Dara McInerney taking that spot.

The Fiesta Juniors were in action at Silverstone, McInerney winning one of the three races to move up three positions to sixth in the Rankings. Like Smith, he is on 12 wins for the season, but the bigger average grid size for the Fiestas means McInerney gets the verdict.

This pair are three wins adrift of Rankings topper Callum Grant’s tally of 15 as the top five remains unchanged for the second consecutive week – but there is clearly plenty of scope for battling at the top of the leaderboard as the run-in to the end of the season begins.

The Autosport National Rankings is a table based on the number of wins for each driver in car races across the calendar year in the UK and Ireland – with each victory counting equally.

While there hasn’t been a tremendous amount of action over the past fortnight in the uppermost echelons, there has been extraordinary jostling further down the top 20. 

Breaking into the top 10 this week is Monoposto racer George Line. He is usually very hard to beat in his Dallara F308 F3 car, and sure enough won both races at Brands Hatch to move up eight places to 10th.

Dan Polley took his WEV to victory in one of the two Formula Vee races at Croft, but because he has been leapfrogged by Line that means he remains rooted in 12th. One spot behind him, Bob Barron was unbeaten over the brace of Racing Hondas bouts at Cadwell Park, so he is up nine to 13th in the Rankings.

If Polley is unlucky not to move up in the table with a win, then Michael Saunders can count himself even more unfortunate. Delays on Saturday at Brands meant that the Bernie’s V8s series only got its Sunday race in. Saunders won his class in that in his TVR Tuscan Challenge, but is down one to 15th because of falling behind double winners Line and Barron.

After recently breaking his victory duck in the Mini Challenge Trophy series, Richard Jepp was back in action on his normal stomping ground of the CityCar Cup. Two wins from four races at Snetterton in his Peugeot 108 hoist him up 16th places to 16th.

Others on the move in the top 20 are Gilbert Yates, who won one of the two Ferrari Challenge UK races at Donington Park (son Bradley claimed the other!) to move up five to 18th, and Brian Caudwell, who took an overall and a class win across the two Equipe races at Brands in his Shelby American Cobra, and is up 17 at 19th.

Autosport National Driver Rankings

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