Danny van Rijkens

Danny van Rijkens (born 25th May 1995 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a South African racing driver, credited with being the first African driver to compete in both the Rejects of LFS series and ARWS, and its predecessor F1RWRS. He currently races for Nurminen Grand Prix in the ARWS' 2018 season. Van Rijkens is heavily sponsored by South African petrochemicals firm Sasol.

Career

Little is known of van Rijkens' motorsport history, it's believed he had a prolific karting career in the Cape Town area, but a lack of published results and witnesses of his talent betrays this. What is known is that van Rijkens was initially spotted by Sammy Jones whilst the latter was on a business trip to South Africa in February 2014. Jones was seeking to raise further sponsorship for his motorsport projects when a visit to a kart track on the outskirts of Cape Town led to the two bumping into each other. Having seen van Rijkens' talent, Jones was convinced he could be a future star, and offered the young driver the test and reserve slot at his newly reformed RoLFS team as the series was resurrected for 2014. Van Rijkens immediately accepted, and moved to England as a result, testing frequently at Silverstone as well as attending each race with the team.

The season didn't go well however, with the team struggling to even score points, something that was partly attributed by some to the inexperience of van Rijkens as a test and development driver. Most of the team's budget was spent on improving the spec chassis which they were required to use - van Rijkens had described it as too cumbersome and heavy, but it brought little benefit. A lack of spending on the stock Judd engine meant the team were frequently one of the slowest on the grid. Following the Kyoto Ring weekend however, Jones had had enough of Josh Carlisle and sacked the Englishman, replacing him immediately with van Rijkens, who would be competing for the first time in a professional open-wheel racing series.

In the poor car, Danny performed to a reasonable standard, and in only his second event, the Westhill Sprint race, he finished a superb third and sealed Jones' team's first podium of the season. The points weren't enough to prevent the team finishing bottom of the championship, but the result announced van Rijkens' intent. On the back of this performance, Jones renewed his deal with Danny, ensuring the South African had a full-time deal for 2015.

Van Rijkens driving the 2015 Scaven S15 for Jones Racing in the Rejects of LFS series.

The following year saw the Jones Racing team struggling for funds as Castrol reduced their commitment to the team after 2014's poor results. Therefore to partner Danny, Irishman Connor O'Heagan was signed, bringing with him a significant deal with the shady Shannon Group which would ensure the team would stay afloat. Immediately it was clear that the two drivers would get far more out of the car than in 2014, with both solidly within the tight midfield pack. In the first race of the season, Danny finished a strong third in the heat races, but could only manage 14th overall in the main feature race. Things would change dramatically at the next round though, van Rijkens avoided chaos in the feature race to emerge victorious, sealing Jones Racing's first win in the RoLFS since it's previous incarnation in 2011, and the first ever victory for an African driver in the series.

The result attracted the attention of other team bosses, and as the victory ensured he was eligible for a Reject Licence, the Tropico Grand Prix F1RWRS team offered Danny the chance to race for them as the team struggled for funds at the back of the grid. Eager to take the chance, Danny left Jones Racing to join the big boys in the top tier of motorsport, tasked with getting the Tropico car out of pre-qualifying and back on to the grid.

Racing record

Career summary

Year	Series	Team	Position
2014	Rejects of LFS	Jones Racing	21st
2015	Rejects of LFS	Jones Racing	11th
	F1RWRS	Tropico Grand Prix powered by CR Motorsport	25th
2016	F1RWRS	People Power presents Holden CR Motorsport	31st
		Alstom Equipe Gauthier
2017	F1RWRS	Sasol Equipe Gauthier	11th
2018	ARWS	Equipe Gauthier	19th
		Nurminen Grand Prix

Complete Rejects of LFS results

(Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	DC	Points
2014	Jones Racing	Scaven S11B	Judd 3.0 V8	BLA FEA	BLA SPR	SOU FEA	SOU SPR	FER FEA	FER SPR	KYO FEA	KYO SPR	WES FEA 13	WES SPR 3	AST FEA 11	AST SPR 18		21st	2
2015	Jones Racing	Scaven S15	Judd 3.0 V8	BLA HEA 3	BLA FEA 14	WES HEA 6	WES FEA 1	FER HEA	FER FEA	SOU HEA	SOU FEA	AST HEA	AST FEA	KYO HEA	KYO FEA	KYO 200	11th	12

Complete F1RWRS and ARWS results

(Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	DC	Points
2015	Tropico Grand Prix powered by CR Motorsport	Tropico TGP002	Gillet GV10	TAS	AUS	MED	MON	MEX	USA	CAN	GBR	GER Ret	BEL Ret	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	NED Ret	CHN 6	JPN Ret	BRA 8			25th	1
2016	People Power presents Holden CR Motorsport	CR PP-A	Holden LSF1-16	AUS DNPQ	NSW 9	GBR DNPQ	ITA Ret	AUT DNPQ	CAN DNPQ	USS DNPQ	USN Ret	GER DNPQ	NED DNPQ	MON DNPQ	BEL DNPQ							31st	0
	Alstom Equipe Gauthier	Gauthier G1.16	Pure-Hart PHRWRS-1													MEX 15†
		Gauthier G1.16B															ARG Ret	CHN 12†	JPN Ret
2017	Sasol Equipe Gauthier	Gauthier G2.17	Pure-Hart PHRWRS-1-17	AUS 13†	NSW DNPQ	GBR 10	ITA Ret	AUT Ret	CAN Ret	USS Ret	USN 12	GER Ret	NED Ret	BEL Ret	MON Ret							11th	12
		Gauthier G2.17B														MAR 6	ARG 6	JPN 4	CHN 2
2018	Equipe Gauthier	Gauthier G3.18	Pure-Hart PHWS-2	AUS Ret	NSW 15	ITA Ret	MAR 7	CAL 9	USA 9	CAN 17	GBR 9	AUT WD										21st	3
	Nurminen Grand Prix	Nurminen NRE Type 02	Holden LSWS-18										GER Ret	SCA 8	BEL 13	MON 11	RSA Ret	BRA Ret	ARG 5	JPN 8	CHN 6
2019	Eric Vincent Racing	Vixen FA.2	Daihatsu Zeetec-R2/19	AUS 11	NSW DNQ	KIN Ret	ITA 6	MAR Ret	CAN Ret	500 DNQ	GBR Ret	AUT 8	GER 17	SCA Ret	BEL Ret	MON Ret	RSA Ret	BRA 15	ARG Ret	JPN Ret	CHN 11	22nd	1

* Season still in progress.
† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.