Press Releases - Rookie Ray Racks Up Race Results

Rookie Ray Racks Up Race Results

As the half-way point of the season passes, we take a look at 18 year old Rookie sensation Ray Striver and his meteoric rise through the Rookie Series, and UK National Rankings.

Having only been on the MRC radar for four weeks, Striver has risen to the Top 100 ranked drivers in the UK in record time, currently registered 97th having climbed 32 places from 129th in Week 4 with an impressive showing at Misano in Rookie Series taking 1st in Race 1 but finishing 2nd and losing out to A. Nagy of Hungary in a race affected by changeable conditions and tyre strategies.

Since arriving at Most, Czech Republic for his first race, Striver has finished on the podium in every race.

Ray, currently competing in Hungary's Euro Ring awaiting Race 2 and starting from 1st. How did you find race 1?

"I couldn't quite believe the result if I'm honest. The Rookie weekends have been shaken up recently and the fields mixed. I took pole by just 0.093 so I expected a tight race. To win a lights-to-flag race by 13 seconds was a big surprise! We'd obviously tweaked the car in the right direction after Qualifying".

Speaking of the shake-up. How are you finding the races without your co-patriot Biguel Maines whom you shared success with early on.

"It's definitely a shame we're in different fields, Maines is highly competative and - I hate to admit - he seems to have the measure of me in Qualifying which made the races very tight. Though being separated means we can both register wins on the same day as he matched my win in Hungary with a win in Lithuania yesterday".

What has been your highlight so far?

"Without a doubt, Misano Race 1. From pole I screwed up my start and was a long way down in 3rd by the end of the first lap. I figured I really had to concentrate to claw back the deficit in such a short race. The last five laps was a showdown between myself and F. Oliveira, we were swapping for 1st and 2nd down to the wire.
After four unsuccessful overtake attempts I threw it past him on the last corner of the last lap for the win!"

Are you on track to achieve your targets set by your manager Adamski?

"We didn't really have any parameters set for the first year. We figured 'let the results happen, whatever they are' and we'll focus predominantly on training. Procuring lucrative sponsorship deals for next season to ensure we're well funded and put a lot of time into archiving setups in preparation for British F3 Series. However, our goal in the long term is to get to the UK Ranking Top 5 while Guy Wellington is still there. A similar goal as iHealy and Miguel Baines. Wellingtons rating has barely dropped all season so there's hope he'll still be leading the way by the time we get up there! Takings the results we have has been fantastic. 9 podiums from 9 races sounds sweet!

Ray Striver will be looking to dominate another race weekend by securing another win or podium tomorrow at Euro Ring Race 2. Currently sat an impressive 13th in Rookie Standings with 344 points, just what can Striver achieve in the Championship this season? Can he reign in the lead built by T. Siebrand and C. Paxic?