Opinion: victory was hard-earned at the second Desert ePrix
At the restart, four-time World Rallycross champion Johan Kristoffersson, in for Ahlin-Kottulinsky in the still-intact RXR, quickly demoted Cristina Gutiérrez, driving again for Sir Lewis Hamilton’s X44 team, and then pulled a dramatic wide move on Carlos Sainz’s team-mate Laia Sanz at the penultimate corner to secure a hard-earned victory.
Nascar’s best-known and most successful driver, ‘The King’ took seven top-tier titles, seven Daytona 500s, 700 top-10 finishes and a stunning 200 Cup wins from nearly 1200 races over 35 years. The last is among the most famous, coming at Daytona on Independence Day 1984 in front of president Ronald Reagan. His blue-and-orange #43, moustache, shades, cowboy hat and chewing tobacco all contributed to his legend. This year, Petty returned again to Daytona, aged 84, to support Petty GMS’s Erik Jones, who had been blessed to run the #43.