O’Young unlucky to miss independents’ chance

Darryl O’Young was contemplative after losing out on his chance to win the independents’ championship after contact in race one took him out.

Darryl had started on the independents’ pole in the top ten overall in the Bamboo Engineering Chevrolet Lacetti, whilst title rival Sergio Hernández was deeper in the pack, but contact on the first lap after the restart saw Darryl crash out of retirement at Lisboa, taking Fredy Barth with him.

“I was in a good position as we were first in the independents and Hernández had dropped down to fifth, so I was really in a position to do anything to win the independents and not fight with the manufacturers,” said O’Young to TouringCarTimes.

“I was going down the front straight and Barth had a good run on me, and Coronel also…so I was defending on Barth into the first corner there and braked at the same point as Barth did and Coronel hit me from behind, and it would have been fine if it was a square hit, but he hit me on the right side of the bumber and than spun me around.”

“It was a big crash…I thought for sure both races were over, but the Bamboo guys did a great job to put everything back together, and we went back out and Romanov crashed right in front of us.”

O’Young admitted he was cautious on the brakes as it was the first lap after the safety car, which may have been what caught Tom Coronel out, who was later given a drive through penalty for the incident.

“I wasn’t braking on the limit, as the brakes were a bit cold still, but it wasn’t like I was ridiculously early on the brakes either, so congratulations to Sergio and Proteam, they did a great job all season and came out on top. Disappointing to end the season this way, but at the end, it’s Macau, it’s a gamble here.”

O’Young now drops to fourth in the independents’ category after strong races from Poulsen and Engstler, where Darryl had two DNF’s, but the Hong Kong driver doesn’t mind.

“To me, it was win or nothing, so second, third, fourth – doesn’t matter.”