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 the Rejects of LFS series. He currently races for Castrol Jones Racing in the 2014 season, having replaced previous driver Josh Carlisle for the final four races of the year.
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.
Results
Rejects of LFS
| Year | Team | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | DC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
WES FEA |
FER HEA |
FER FEA |
SOU HEA |
SOU FEA |
AST HEA |
AST FEA |
KYO HEA |
KYO FEA |
KYO 300 |
9th* | 2* |