Grapevine: Rankings: Dixon, Briscoe make gains
IndyCar heroes from Down Under made hay in their annual raid on the Daytona 24 Hours, with New Zealander Scott Dixon and Australian Ryan Briscoe moving up to new positions within the top 20 of the Castrol Rankings
Dixon was in the car that was narrowly pipped to victory by the sister Chip Ganassi Racing Riley-BMW, but his second place lifts him three places from 18th to 15th in the Castrol Rankings, moving him above Formula 1 stars Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg and IndyCar rival Helio Castroneves. Co-driver Dario Franchitti, meanwhile, strengthened his hold on ninth spot to give himself a good launchpad at the start of the forthcoming IndyCar season.
Briscoe, who missed out on a Daytona outing last year, took fifth spot in the SunTrust Dallara-Chevrolet, lifting him to 19th position in the Castrol Rankings and pushing Ford's World Rally ace Jari-Matti Latvala outside the top 20.
The winning Ganassi Riley was led by reigning Grand-Am champions Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, who move up into 59th and 61st positions respectively. Joining them were IndyCar ace Graham Rahal, who made big strides to 109th, and versatile sportscar racer Joey Hand (261).
This quartet also moved straight into equal 13th in the EDGE Race for 2011, which is still led by Dakar Rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah from Carlos Sainz.
The big rivals of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas, former champions Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty, were joined as usual by NASCAR superstar Jimmie Johnson. They may have finished a disappointing 15th, but Johnson remains just out of Franchitti's reach in the Castrol Rankings in eighth place.
Pole position hero Jorg Bergmeister and the Flying Lizard squad were out of luck in the race, but the German does move up to 273rd position in the Castrol Rankings.
Meanwhile, Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell joined Monte Carlo Rally exponent Alex Caffi in the ranks of F1 veterans making surprise Castrol Rankings entries: the Brits were both at the wheel of the fourth-placed United Autosports Riley, and move into 1151st position - what's more, Brundle was within four seconds of repeating his Daytona victory of 23 years ago.
To see the full Castrol Rankings and the latest positions in the Race for 2011, visit www.castroldriverrankings.com.
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