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Autosport
Autosport
National
Marcus Simmons

Romanek rises into the top five of Autosport's National Driver Rankings

The Van Diemen JL13 driver (number 73 above) has launched a three-pronged attack this year, contesting the National, United and Castle Combe FF1600 championships.

And, while in recent weeks he has usually only registered one win per event, his tally has now risen to 11 victories after a further success when the National series headed to Northern Ireland. He jumps up four places on the leaderboard but still remains five wins behind table-topper Freddie Slater.

In fact, Romanek is the only driver to improve inside the top 12 this week but there is a plethora of movement further down Autosport's table.

The highest-ranked of those improvers is Junior Saloons star Daire Flock, who only took one win at Thruxton - and even then, it was only after CJ Morgan was penalised for an aggressive move on Flock - but it still enabled the Citroen Saxo pilot to climb five places into 13th.

That is one position ahead of Radical Cup UK frontrunner James Lay, who was again on scintillating form at Silverstone.

Despite a drive unit failure in qualifying that left him starting at the back of the field, he stormed up the order in the 20-minute opener to take the spoils and later doubled up in race two to gain 10 spots in the rankings.

Another driver to take two wins in Northamptonshire was Tom Mills, whose relentless charge towards the GB4 title continued. He won the first two contests but heavy rain led to the finale being cancelled and denied him the chance to climb higher than his jump from 31st to 17th.

Continuing the Silverstone conquerors, Jonathan Lovell picked up another Boxster Cup win although he did suffer a rare defeat in the finale and therefore only gains one position, moving to 20th. Lovell is, in turn, one place ahead of Dan Silvester, who was a class victor in both Toyota MR2 bouts at Snetterton to rise up from 34th.

Last year's National Driver Rankings leader Harrison moves into the top 50 for the first time this season at number 36 (Photo by: Mick Walker)

But one driver who did win over the weekend yet failed to improve their ranking is Ash Sutton. The British Touring Car points leader stays 23rd despite his solitary Croft success because of the huge amount of movement around him.

Among the new entries further down the table, one of particular note is Samuel Harrison. He finished at the top of last year's rankings with 21 wins and his latest Historic F3 brace - coming at Oulton Park - has propelled him into the top 50 for the first time this season in 36th place.

Autosport's most successful national racers so far in 2023

Pos Driver (Car) Overall wins Class wins Total
1 Freddie Slater (Ginetta G40 Junior) 16 0 16
2 James Clarke (Phantom PR22) 12 0 12
3 Aidan Hills (Mazda MX-5 Mk3/Ginetta G40 GT5) 11 1 12
4 Ravi Ramyead (Ginetta G56 GTA) 11 0 11
5 Lucas Romanek (Van Diemen JL13) 11 0 11
6 Michael Cullen (Raw Stryker/Ford Fiesta ST/Austin Mini Cooper S) 11 0 11
7 Steve Foden (Mazda MX-5 Mk1) 10 0 10
8 Jason West (BMW M3 E46) 10 0 10
9 Luke Reade (Ginetta G56 GT4) 10 0 10
10 Elliot Lettis (Peugeot 107) 9 0 9
11 Ryan McLeish (Legends Ford Coupe) 9 0 9
12 Mathieu Gauthier-Thornton (Phantom P94) 0 9 9
13 Daire Flock (Citroen Saxo VTR) 8 0 8
14 James Lay (Radical SR3) 8 0 8
15 Graham Fennymore (Reynard SF81) 8 0 8
16 Stewart Black (Legends Ford Coupe) 8 0 8
17 Tom Mills (Tatuus F4-TO14) 8 0 8
18 Nick White (Ginetta G56 GTA) 8 0 8
19 Gordon Duncan (Radical PR6) 7 1 8
20 Jonathan Lovell (Porsche Boxster S) 7 1 8
21 Dan Silvester (Toyota MR2 Mk2/Honda Civic) 2 6 8
22 Gary Prebble (Honda Civic/SEAT Leon Cupra 20v T) 2 6 8
23 Ash Sutton (Ford Focus ST) 7 0 7
24 Freddie Chiddicks (Caterham 7 270R) 7 0 7
25 Jake Hill (Nissan Primera GT/BMW 330e M Sport/Ford Capri III 3.0S) 7 0 7
26 Peter Barrable (Legends Ford Coupe) 7 0 7
27 Horatio Fitz-Simon (Lotus 22/Lotus Elan/Lotus Elan 26R) 6 1 7
28 Stuart Waite (BMW M3 E36) 6 1 7
29 Graham Moore (GMS Fireblade) 2 5 7
30 Theo Micouris (Radical SR1) 0 7 7
31 Colin Turkington (BMW 330e M Sport/BMW M3 E36 Evo/BMW M3 E30) 6 0 6
32 Shaun Traynor (Toyota MR2 Roadster) 6 0 6
33 Michael Gibbins (MCR S2n) 6 0 6
34 Ben Short (Mazda MX-5 Mk1) 6 0 6
35 Dan Zelos (Mini Cooper JCW) 6 0 6
36 Samuel Harrison (Brabham BT21B) 6 0 6
37 Neil Fowler (MGB GTV8) 6 0 6
38 Stewart Place (Peugeot 205 GTI) 6 0 6
39 Andrew Graham (Triumph TR8) 6 0 6
40 Charles Hall (Mittell MC-41R) 6 0 6
41 Jackie Cochrane (Sunbeam Tiger) 6 0 6
42 Nigel Greensall (TVR Griffith 200/Ford Capri/Lotus Elan GTS/Lister-Jaguar Knobbly/Jaguar E-type) 5 1 6
43 Tim Bentley (Renault Clio 182) 4 2 6
44 Mark White (Honda Civic Type R) 3 3 6
45 David Drinkwater (BMW Compact) 0 6 6
46 Karl O’Brien (Dallara F307) 5 0 5
47 Joe Jessup (Honda Civic Type R) 5 0 5
48 Louis Woodward (BMW 120i E82) 5 0 5
49 Marcus Pett (Legends Ford Coupe) 5 0 5
50 Matthew Fletcher (Mazda MX-5 Mk1) 5 0 5

All car races in 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. Only classes divided by car characteristics are included. Classes divided by driver characteristics such as ability, professional status, age, experience (for example rookie or Pro-Am classes) are not included. 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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