Dan Clarke completes successful Rookie Champ Car season

Mexico City played host to the final round, with the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as location for this season finale. CTE HVM Racing driver, Clarke, on his first visit to the city and this race track, made steady progress through the weekend, as he learned the circuit and developed a car set up which suited him for the race today.

After pre-event practice and two qualifying sessions Clarke had made a strong impression on the event with sixth fastest time, to line up on the third row of the grid for today’s race.

At the green flag Clarke was off the line well, but a start line incident further down the field brought out the safety car before the first lap had been completed. The grid of Champ Cars circulated while debris was cleared from the track and they were soon back racing. Unfortunately Clarke wasn’t able to be in the action, with mechanical failure sidelining the young Brit on lap seVen almost immediately after the cars were up to full speed.

Clarke said of his first season, "Thanks to the hard work we put in for the races in Denver, Montreal and Road America, we were breaking records trying to gain points on Will Power, and at Road America, we really put some pressure on him. But, if someone had told me at that point that we wouldn’t even finish the next two races, I wouldn’t have believed it. But that’s what happened. Will ended his season in the best way possible, and I ended my season in the worst way possible.

"It would be easy to fall into the dark side and question what went wrong, and say that car failures that were outside my control cost me races. But I won’t do that. I think we have a great team, and this isn’t just a loss for me…it’s a loss for the crew, as well.

They do a professional job, and you can’t knock them. Sometimes, bad stuff just happens and you have to deal with it. I want to work positively towards next year with this team, who have helped me out more times than I can count. I want to thank the entire CTE Racing HVM team. I also want to thank my sponsors, Ticketmaster, The Australian Pink Floyd Show and the Imagine charity, as well as my Chas Cole, my manager, who has stuck with me since 2002."

Clarke notched up a pole position and a third place podium spot en route to his second place in the rookie of the year standings. He also finished 12th in the overall Drivers Championship.

- Alison Hill-