Conor Daly crowned MRF International Challenge Champion 2012

Conor Daly (USA) came back in style in the final race of the championship to grab the title from reigning champion Jordan King (GBR). Daly lost his points lead to King in race 3 as the later won the race from starting 2nd while the former could only mange 5th. Daly came back strong on race 4 to win the race with some luck as polesitter Alice Powell spun giving the lead to Belgian Sam Dejonghe who too lost out on Lap17 handing the lead to Daly who went on to win the race and the title. On the other part bad luck struck Jordan King right from the word go starting 6th on the grid for the reverse grid and then sliding on C1 and eventually loosing places trying to avoid a slowing car in front thus managing to finish only 8th. The battle went on like a thriller till the last lap for the title to be decided and the strongest driver won without breaking down on pressure.

Race 1
Race 1 saw Josh Hill jumping pole sitter Jon Lancaster at the start and then pulling away comfortably to win on his first visit to the circuit. Luciano Bacheta, starting 3rd on the grid, was on the tail of Lancaster throughout the race but could not find a way past, finally finishing less than a second behind his compatriot. Alice Powell, who started 5th on the grid, was given a drive–through penalty for jumping the start and fell back to 12th position. GP3 driver Conor Daly, who had a miserable qualifying session and started 13th on the grid, passed Indian Parthiva Sureshwaren on the penultimate lap to finish in a brilliant 6th place. This gave him pole position for the reverse grid based second race.

Race 2
American Conor Daly comfortably led from start to finish to take victory by over 11 seconds. There was a close battle for the positions behind with Belgium driver Sam Dejonghe finished in 2nd place, just ahead of a chasing Jordan King, Luciano Bacheta and Jon Lancaster, who were all separated by less than a second. Race 1 winner Josh Hill finished in 6th place. Conor gained 2points lead over Jordan King.

Race 3
The penultimate race of the championship witnessed two red flag and restarts due to various incidents. At the lights Jordan King made a flier of a start from 2nd to take the poleman Jon Lancaster and he did it thrice including the 2 restarts. The first red flag was due to the toppling of Indian driver Parth Ghorpade who got clipped by Gustavo Myasava onto turn 3. Parth could do nothing as his car lifted and went on two wheels to topple upside down without any serious injuries to the driver. The first restart saw another incident of turn1 as two cars clipped each other and stalling in the middle of the track for the red flags to be waved again. The second restart went fine without any incidents only for the race to shortened to 15laps which Jordan King win from pole sitter Jon Lancaster from the lights till the flag and to regain the championship lead from Conor Daly who finished 5th with just one race left .

Race 4 
The reverse grid saw Conor start in 2nd and King start 6th while young lady Alice Powell was in pole. Alice took a clean start to lead the race while Conor was pushed to third by Sam Dejonghe going on the C1. Jordan King´s championship hope went worse as he slid on C1 from P6 loosing track position. Alice Powell while on the lead went in too hot on the brakes to get spun and handed the lead Sam while Alice rejoined in 10th. Sam lead much of the race from Conor Daly but the championship was still on the hang as Jordan climbed back to fifth. Midway bad luck again struck Jordan as he dropped down again as he had to avoid a troubled car in front and dropped back to 9th while Conor´s luck got better as he was handed the race lead due to Sam´s retirement from the lead. Conor went on to win while Jordan couldnt manage much than 8th which was enough for Conor to gain the points deficit and grab the title. Jon Lancaster came 2nd while Josh Hill came 3rd.