Two safe finishes for Darryl O’Young at Morocco

Darryl O’Young took two independents’ points finish as well as his first overall points finish of the season at Marrakech, a track which many of the BMW teams considered to be their worst circuit on the calendar.

The Hong Kong driver started 13th in both races, and finished in 12th in the first race and ninth in the second race, and moves past Fredy Barth in the Yokohama Trophy standings to fourth behind the three Chevrolets.

After a steady first race, most of the action was in race two. O’Young was first able to hold off Michel Nykjaer’s Chevrolet for five laps, who’d fallen back with a clutch problem at the start, but was eventually passed shortly before the safety car to recover Gabriele Tarquini’s Honda.

In the one lap sprint to the chequered flag, O’Young lost another position but is satisfied at the end of a tough weekend for the BMW 320 TC cars.

“I’m disappointed as on the last lap I made a mistake and let Engstler past me,” said O’Young to TouringCarTimes. “The whole race I was fighting so hard and pulling away, and to lose it on one lap was a little unsatisfying.”

“I was fighting Michel a bit in the second race but in the end I was probably only slowing him down. It was enjoyable for me, but probably not so enjoyable for him.”

With the two high-speed Monza and Marrakech race weekends out of the way, O’Young hopes the BMW will start to be more competitive in the next races of the WTCC.

“I’m really hoping we can turn things around for the coming rounds, with some tracks with some turns. It really can’t get worse than Marrakech, even when following the Chevrolets and the SEATs, they’re just pulling away down the straights,” he said.