NORTH Yorkshire racing driver Darren Manning finished the Molson Indy Toronto in eighth place, his ninth top-ten finish in just eleven starts in his #15 RAC Walker Racing Champ car.

Manning, who comes from Knaresborough, maintains tenth place in the drivers' championship, led by four-time winner Paul Tracy, and is second in the Rookie of the Year standings.

The five points he got for finishing eighth take his championship point total to 50.

He posted the third fastest lap of the race, on Lap 95, with a time of 60.608 (104.244 mph).

"The car was really quick. We had some good fast lap times," Manning said later.

"I could hold the guys in front of me. It just took me a little bit longer to get up to speed.

"Maybe we're not working the tires hard enough. The other cars went away at the end of the run and mine were still good. We just need to work on that.

"I was nearly as fast in the race as I was in qualifying. If we could have done qualifying with a car like that we probably could have started a little further up the field. Hopefully this set-up will benefit us at the next street course."

Manning's team-mate Rodolfo Lavin finished 15th after starting 17th on the grid.

He avoided a six car pile-up at the start of the race and by his first pit stop, on lap 31, the young Mexican rookie was in the first ten.

On Lavin's lap 62 stop to repair air jack failure, a crack in the rear wing mounting post was noticed.

Lavin delayed returning to the track until lap 68. When he got back on the track he had lost five laps to the leaders and was in 15th place.

Updated: 11:21 Wednesday, July 16, 2003