Daytona's Thursday Night League is our most affordable & casual championship, aimed at working professionals and students. The 12-round midweek Championship is unique in that it allows for four drop rounds - meaning it's not always clear who's winning until the last few rounds.

After the final rounds at all three venues, some new champions have emerged victorious.

SEE FINAL RESULTS

Daytona Sandown Park

SODI

As we got underway for the final round of  Thursday Night League, the SODI drivers knew that first place trophy had already been secured by Luka Nik in a dominant display all season.

Second and third place however were very much still up for grabs. Alfie Shrubb, Dan Giles and Steve Hannon were the drivers in contention after a hard fought season. They greeted each other with a smile and handshake, wishing each other the best of luck.

As we got underway, Alfie laid down his marker and secured pole position, Jules Larkin followed in second and Dan Giles in third place, with Steve Hannon down in fifth with work to be done if he was
to secure second in the championship. As the race got underway, Shrubb maintained his lead into the first corner and then did not look back, leading every single lap of the race, despite the efforts of Giles and Hannon behind doing this best to catch him. Shrubb took the win and all 26 points to claim second place in the championship.

Dan Giles slipped into to seventh on the first lap of the race, which was clearly but a fire under Dan, as he started to make his way through the field knowing he had to win on the day to claim second overall. He got up to p5 after three laps then after fourteen laps made three places in one lap to move him up to second place. He spent the rest of the race trying to chase down the lead but ran out of laps towards the end. Giles finished two seconds off the race lead.

Steve Hannon, our last driver in contention for the podium places, slipped back to sixth on the grid at the start, but similarly to Dan Giles he knew he had to make places up quickly. He was in front of Giles in the standings and knew if he finished one place behind him he would still beat him in the championship standings.

By lap four he found himself in fourth and stayed their for ten laps until he finally made his move for third place, securing it after a clever move on the brakes, flying past third-placed Rafael Blanco-Bush.

That's how the race ended with Alfie taking the win, Dan Giles in 2nd and Steve Hannon in 3rd.

That meant with all the scored added up that Luka Nik was your SODI Thursday Night League champion, second place went to Alfie Shrubb and third place Steve Hannon.

DMAX

Archie Bullard had already won the Thursday Night League before stepping in kart, and looked to increase his dominance by securing pole position - if he scored a perfect race today then he would have achieved the maximum amount of points possible, starting ahead of Ian Del-Pizzo and Jack Harrison, making his return to Daytona Sandown Park after a long absence.

As the race got underway, it was business as usual for Archie who led from lap one, all the way to the finish and secured fastest lap in the process, giving him a perfect championship score

Del-Pizzo dropped back to ninth on the grid after a shaky start, but managed to weave his way through the field throughout the race, and by lap nine had secured third place on the grid.

He was not done yet, though, as only a single lap later he took second place from Jack Harrison to come home in second and secure second place in the championship for himself. Third place went to Jack Harrison.

The final standings finished with Archie Bullard taking p1 in the championship, Ian Del-Pizzo in second, and a special mention to the absent Luka Nik, who won the SODI category and also completed the DMAX podium in third place.

Daytona Milton Keynes

The SODI championship was all wrapped up before the final round, with Charlie Sheldrake already taking the championship after an unbelievably consistent season, however it was still all to play for between Richard Danby and Ash Chivers for the second and third spot. In the DMAX, it would take a disaster for Lee Schnitzler to concede the championship to James King, so all he needed was a clean round to take the top spot.

SODI

It was a challenging qualifying session for many of the drivers as they got caught behind slower traffic and yellow flags, allowing for some changes at the top of the timings.

It was Lonnie Adamson who took the top spot in qualifying, narrowly edging out SODI lap record holder Jayden Lyford by just 0.09s. Craig Dickenson was a further couple of hundredths out in third, with champion Charlie Sheldrake in fourth. Richard Danby had a difficult qualifying session finishing down in fourteenth with championship rival Ash Chivers up in seventh place.

After a great battle, Jayden Lyford took the win over Lonnie Adamson with Craig Dickenson a further ten seconds back in third, however Lyford was disqualified from the round after coming in underweight at the end of the race, promoting Adamson up to first and Harley Brewster up into the podium spots.

Richard Danby finished down in eleventh place but would be promoted up to ninth with Lyford and another driver’s disqualification from the round, this was just enough to clinch second place in the championship over Ash Chivers who despite having an excellent final race would fall just nine points short.

Final Championship Results

At the end of the 12-round season, Charlie Sheldrake emerged victorious after dominating most of the season with four race wins and five second-places throughout the season. Richard Danby just managed to beat Ash Chivers by nine points for second place with round eleven being the real deciding factor, with Danby picking up his only race win of the season and gained nine points over Ash.

DMAX

It was an action-packed final round with 25 drivers participating. Lee Schnitzler only needed to finish in the top ten to secure the championship, with rival James King needing to win the race and take the fastest lap to have any chance.

The battle for pole position was one for the history books with both Miles Wrightman and James King setting identical laps on the final lap in qualifying. The drivers would end up fighting for the pole position through a game of rock paper scissors to decide the front row, Wrightman’s paper beat King’s rock and allowed him that coveted pole position. Lee Schnitzler was doing all he needed to take the championship with him lining up in third.

There was a great battle for the lead between Wrightman and King, with the latter looking like the slightly quicker driver, however a rare mistake from the extremely consistent James King happened as he mounted the kerb at turn ten and looped his kart around, dropping him down to third and allowing Schnitzler to take second place and the Championship. Wrightman didn’t feel any more pressure from behind for the rest of the race, as he cruised home to take home the race win by four seconds over Schnitzler.

Final Championship Results

Lee Schnitzler took the championship after a season long battle with James King, finishing 32 points in front at the end of the season with four race wins and six second-places. James King finished a further 46 points in front of his brother Ashley Mayston-King, who just narrowly managed to finish in front of Paul Studd by four points after an extremely tight battle between the two.

Daytona Tamworth

N-35 ST

There was a new face on pole position in the 4-stroke class, with Jude Lillyman putting it on pole by eight tenths of a second ahead of Tom Duffy.  Despite his speed, Lillyman was not eligible to score points in this round due to being unable to ballast up to 75kg, so Duffy was probably confident of taking the overall victory here.  They would be joined in the top three by David Gaskin, who was just a few hundredths ahead of Alex Bean.

The race saw a great scrap between all of the top four throughout the nineteen laps that were eventually completed.  Duffy never let Lillyman get away and continued to hound him before eventually getting passed at around the halfway stage.  They continued to jockey for position up until a very dramatic moment at turn seven in the closing stages, where Lillyman made the small mistake of going wide – spinning into the barrier and forcing him into sixth.  Rob Carvell was able to capitalise, ending up putting his good pace to use in second place by the end of the race, Gaskin dropping to third but still putting in a very good performance to finish in the podium running.

DMAX-GT

Max Housley’s championship crowning was the theme of the day, and this started in qualifying – though only just ahead of other contender Abi Sanders.  Abi snatched pole on the final lap of the session, but then had it taken away once again by Housley through only two tenths of a second.  They were only inches ahead of Amelia Wolf, who returned to the championship to continue her practice for the Jamie Chadwick Series, which visits Daytona Tamworth very soon.  Wolf found herself one thousandth of a second off of Abi’s pace, a remarkable improvement from last time she raced in round eleven.

There were no surprises in the race regarding who would win, as Max Housley secured the championship in a mature victory of about eight seconds.  Most of the race’s entertainment came from the battle for the podium, where the Sanders siblings raced very hard with Wolf throughout the second half of the race.  Wolf fought bravely to get past Ben Sanders, before Ben stole the position back.  They went back and forth before Wolf eventually secured the move in the closing stages, with Abi following her through and securing the third spot for her troubles as well.

N-35 – Championship Overview

Three drivers stood above the rest in our N-35 class this season, and those drivers were the ones who ended up completing our championship podium.  Reigning N-35 Heavyweight Superchamps champion Jacob Connellan will not be returning for next season, so his eleven-point championship victory is a worthy way to bow out from racing at Daytona.  Of course, he will be sticking around for next season, just on the other side of the pit gate.  He had brave competition in Blake Southan, who only failed to finish on the podium in the rounds he attended once, and therefore securing second place through this.  Tom Duffy’s season was just as impressive, as whilst he did miss a chunk of rounds his two race victories and further four runner-up placements saw him climb to third.  Honourable mentions of course go to the likes of Thierry Hopkins, who certainly put a challenge forward in the early stage of the season, we’re hoping that he comes back to try again next season.

DMAX-GT Championship Overview

The new four-drop format for Thursday Night League made it very difficult to predict how the championship battle was unfolding throughout its twelve rounds, but Max Housley was always a name in contention – taking three race victories on his way to the crown (including a remarkable drive at the final round).  Shock of the year possibly goes to Todd White, who’s consistent top five finishes carried him to the second spot despite racing as what would regularly classed as a heavyweight driver in another Daytona championship.  White constantly bringing the battle to the lighter drivers was a fantastic watch all season. SODI World-Series Champion Abi Sanders is a regular name on championship podiums at Tamworth, and this time is no difference with her taking two race victories to go third, but she had tough challenges from the likes of Tom Duffy and Josh Gora – two drivers who showed a lot of class in their top five finishes this season despite their relative inexperience in DMAX machinery.

It’s a little bit of a break before the next season of Thursday Night League at Daytona Tamworth, but we look forward to welcoming everyone back for another season soon.