Brits on Pole

Darren Manning’s early promise showed when he was a finalist for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Driver of the Year Award, but his success didn’t come cheaply - his parents sold their house to fund his career, and later he worked at Silverstone as driving instructor while sleeping on friends’ sofas.

In 1999 he won the Macau Grand Prix, becoming the first driver since Ayrton Senna to win the race, the pole and set the fastest lap, and went on to test for the Williams F1 team. He spent 2000-02 as a BAR Honda test driver before making his Champ Car debut when the series visited the UK to race at Rockingham. He competed in CART for Walker Racing, then in the IRL for Target Chip Ganassi Racing in 2004-05.

These days he competes for AJ Foyt Racing in the IRL, but has also found time to line up for Team GBR in A1GP, the Daytona 24 Hours for Samax, and the European Le Mans Series for Embassy.

Scott Dixon stretched his championship lead by beating closest challenger Helio Castroneves into second place in the Rexall Edmonton Indy - while Justin Wilson flew the flag for the ex-Champ Car drivers by taking third.

IndyCar racer Darren Manning is to compete in Le Mans Series races at Nurburgring and Hockenheim this summer, it has been announced.

On a circuit where the ex-Champ Car teams were expected to have the edge, it was the traditional IRL powerhouse of Team Penske that locked out the front row in qualifying for the Rexall Edmonton Indy.

Team Penske stamped their mark on the Honda Indy 200 by scoring a 1-2 in both qualifying and the race itself - but the luckless Justin Wilson came away with nothing despite a racy afternoon in the field’s fastest car.

Scott Dixon was handed victory when weather forced an early end to the Firestone Indy 200 at a rain-soaked Nashville Superspeedway - but it was all a lucky mistake.

There were two ways AJ Foyt could have reacted to Darren Manning’s second place at Watkins Glen - pleasure at the podium, or disgust at the under-fire Yorkshireman’s failure to hold on for the win. Happily for Manning, the team boss and veteran racer seems a pretty satisfied man.

The cats fell away leaving the mice to play in the Camping World Indy Grand Prix at the Glen, as the midfield teams dominated the results and the championship leaders had a weekend to forget.

Ryan Hunter-Reay and Darren Manning showed you don’t need to be a well-funded multi-car outfit to nail an IndyCar race by taking first and second ahead of the more fancied teams in the Camping World Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.

A last-gasp effort by Ryan Briscoe cost Justin Wilson pole position as the Indy Racing League returned to road-course racing at Watkins Glen after weeks of endless ovals.

Tony Kanaan took his first victory of the season by surviving a demolition derby at the Richmond International Raceway that wiped out more than half the field.