Validation good for Manning, Foyt team.

The combination of Darren Manning's hard driving and the tactical savvy of the AJ Foyt/ABC Supply team produced a season-best finish in the Camping World Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International as the Briton brought the #14 car home second overall.

The result came just two races after driver and team owner apparently fell out over Manning's decision to park the red, white and blue machine with alleged handling problems at Iowa, leading to suggestions that his the Briton's days in the squad may be numbered. After a solid run at Richmond last Saturday was scuppered by an incident not of his making, Manning was delighted to finally be able to prove the combination's potential as the IndyCar Series ventured onto its first permanent road course of the season.

"This strong finish doesn't surprise me because we've proved it to ourselves every now and then, but it's nice to validate it on a weekend like this to everyone else," the driver said afterwards.

"We've taken a step up, but we just can't quite show it yet. We ran strong in St Petersburg, [and could have] finished third there, but we had a gearbox problem, and had to finish the race in third gear.

"But the competition out there is so, so deep - really, really deep throughout the field. You know, last year, if you were a second off the pace in qualifying, you may be in sixth, seventh place, something like that. This year, if you're second off the pace, you're 20th. It's crazy. Well, it's not crazy, it's good - good for the fans and good for the state of the sport. And it's good that every team can get up front there.

"It's just all testament to the team, and good job we've done," the driver insisted, "We're are a small team, not a two- or three-car team. AJ is a pretty good team-mate to have at times but, at other times, he's a tough taskmaster. He's got very high standards.

"On some of these short weekends, where we've only got maybe an hour, hour-and-a-half to do qualifying and race set-up and get the car fast and comfortable, it can be hard. And trying to get running in traffic, you can run out of time really quickly. It's extremely difficult by ourselves.

"But we've had a long weekend right here at Watkins Glen, three days to sit down and talk about it - myself, the engineer and the chief mechanic. We've worked out what we need to go faster."

Manning started eighth at Watkins Glen, but had to overcame a first lap 'shuffle' which left black tyre marks down his left sidepod following a clash with fellow Briton Dan Wheldon as the cars entered the backstretch three-abreast at the initial start.

Manning was caught in the middle of the pack as front row starter - and another Briton - Justin Wilson dropped to back with a gearbox problem. Attempting to jink to the left to avoid hitting Marco Andretti, who had checked up behind the slowing Wilson, the ABC Supply car clipped Wheldon - who had started in the row behind Manning and was challenging on the outside - damaging his right rear suspension.

"I have to apologise, although I don't think it was anything other than a bit of a racing incident," Manning commented, "We were kind of three-wide between Marco, myself and Dan, and I think Justin had a problem. He had come back right away from the lead group and was bottle-necking us up. Marco had to get off the gas, and I kind of went to the left of him. It's just a shame for Dan, but I had nowhere to go."

Manning received only cosmetic damage and continued racing until Helio Castroneves brought out the race's first yellow. However, when the back half of the field pitted, Manning, who was running eighth, stayed out with the leaders. He pitted on lap 19, but lost his radio earplug and a couple seconds - the equivalent of three positions - by hesitating as he rejoined.

Having figured out the problem, he spent the next six laps plugging his radio back in, while the Foyt team worked out which of various fuel strategies it was going to follow as the first half of the race ran nearly caution free.

Pitting again on lap 38, Manning inherited the lead when everyone else ahead of him pitted when the yellow came out two laps later for Vitor Meira's shunt - and Foyt immediately told him to start saving fuel as he could possibly make it to the end without stopping. An extended yellow period caused by two incidents behind the pace car, enabled the prediction to come true, but Manning still had to negotiate a handful of restarts when the race went green.

"I was a sitting duck on the first restart because I knew I'd have to save fuel and was hoping to hold off as many as I could," he said, "With the yellows that followed, I knew we'd be golden and was just waiting to hear the words from AJ to go full rich on my fuel trim."

The race quickly went yellow again when Enrique Bernoldi spun off at the first restart, and Manning's luck failed to hold second time around. Deciding to gas it between turns ten and eleven to avoid the dirt that Scott Dixon had thrown onto the track, the call was all that Ryan Hunter-Reay needed as he got a run on the #14 coming to the green. The American took the lead going into turn one and, although Manning challenged on the backstraight, his chance of victory ended when he was blocked by the new leader.

"I decided to use discretion when we came to the Bus Stop," the Briton said, "I saw that Tony [Kanaan] had dropped back and was licking his lips, thinking we wouldn't make it through - and then there was another caution and I had AJ yelling in my ear to do the same to Ryan. But I think he learned off of my restarts not to go too late and get one done early, going through the dirt that the guys had brought up a few laps earlier.

"It was just a shame. There was a lot of dirt there and I decided to restart after it, thinking I might be able to catch some of these guys out. But it was a shame on me, because Ryan got a good run. I nearly got him back into the bus Stop, but I thought discretion was the better part of valour, as we were twowide going into it. Fortunately, I think Tony gave me a bit of room to come back in."

Hunter-Reay went on to win his first IndyCar Series event, with Manning, ironically, placing second to the American in a repeat of his best Champ Car finish - at Surfer's Paradise - in 2003.

"That bugger," he smiled, "No, it's nice to finish second to Ryan - he's a good guy, a good driver and it's nice for him as he was out of a ride for a little while there. I'm sure we've all been in that situation before, so it's nice that the Rahal Letterman team gave him a chance.

"He proved [he was worthy of it] straightaway. He was super fast straightaway, and we all knew we had another competitor on our hands, for sure. It was just a matter of time. He had a quick car, and pulled away. As Tony said, I was quick enough to hold my own, but he just pulled a quick couple of seconds gap on me."