The 5 Nations British Rallycross Championship returns to action this weekend at Lydden Hill. The event will be a double header for the headline Supercar class with racing at night on Saturday.
Last year it was Liam Doran who won under the lights with Mark Donnelly the top championship runner which helped him secure the title. However, the GB1 car will not return after sitting out round 5 at Knockhill as well. Racing commences on Saturday 6th November.
Current championship leader Ollie O’Donovan sits at the top of the table with a 10 point margin. He is the only driver in the top 4 without a win. However, thanks to consistently good performances in every qualifying, semi-final and final he leads the way. His closest challenger is fellow Irishman Derek Tohill. The triple Irish champion won last time out at Knockhill and will be hoping to close the gap down to O’Donovan with only 1 further round after this weekend.
6 times British champion Julian Godfrey sits third despite engine failure while in Scotland. With Donnelly electing to sit out round 5 Godfrey was able to pilot the LD Motorsport DS3. The engine tuner will return to his trusty Ford Fiesta that has won 8 titles.
Image Credit: Overtake Motorsport
Young Latvian, Roberts Vitols is in 4th place having lost a number of points in round 5. After only finishing 1 qualifying session he was ineligible to score qualifying or semi-final points costing him 18 points which would have put him in joint 1st place overall. He is looking forward to racing again at night. “With Super 1600 it was already exciting even though I had a windscreen that was so badly scratched I couldn’t see a thing when track lights came across. With a Supercar it will be a lot of fun.”
Vitols is still committed to the series and the fight for the title.
Roberts Vitols “I like this kind of situation when it’s pressure for a championship and a good result. That’s where the most fun begins.”
Roger Thomas, Tristan Ovenden and Steve Hill and Mike Sellar all return to the Kent track that opened the season. There will be 2 returning drivers, each in new cars.
Dom Flitney will bring a newly acquired Volvo C30 from Frode Holte to Lydden. The car was purchased over the summer and has since been worked on by Julian Godfrey. It had been detuned to race on ice but is now back at full power. The final touches are being applied before the car hits the track on Saturday.
“The car is so well known in rallycross circles, and has always been popular with the fans, not least at Lydden. It will be great to bring another new manufacturer onto the Supercar grids too. I don’t like being the same as everyone else. It will of course be very different to anything I’ve ever driven, even the sequential gearbox will be a first, and it’s obviously much more high-tech than the Subaru.”
Image Credit: Flitspeed
The final driver returning is Jack Thorne. The double Super 1600 champion ran a Ford Fiesta in 2016 and 2019. Both cars have been sold on, the latest version to Andrew Jordan who is looking to compete in 2022. Thorne will now race a Peugeot 208 purchased from Andy Scott. Albatec Racing will help run the car at Lydden with over 6 years of knowledge from running the car. Scott raced the 208 at Lydden Hill during round 1 and 2.
Thorne “When we were at lydden just over 2 years ago that was completely chucked in the deep end, we had no intention of racing that weekend. We only got off the ferry from collecting the car on the Friday! I have a lot to learn with the 208. I have never driven a transverse Supercar but it is something I have always wanted to try so I am looking forward to that.”
“Next weekend I have no expectations but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t going to try and get on the podium, after all anythings possible in rallycross. However I have to remind myself I have been a long time out of rallycross and have only done 4 supercar events in the last 6 years so we will see how it goes.”
Image Credit: Overtake Motorsport
There will be 90 entries across 11 classes. 5 of those have big enough entries for semi-finals to be run. The Retro, Super Retro and Retro 4WD categories will hold their season finale with Simon Hart, Barry Stewart and Andy Grant in prime position to secure their respective titles. Electro Rallycross has had their season called off early with Dan Welch declared the inaugural champion.
There will be 10 Super National cars with Sam Jones debuting a Suzuki Swift and Karl Jarvis racing a Renault Megane for the first time. Andy Grant, Magic Florczak and Tomasz Wielgosz will race in the class for the first time this season.
Juniors will have 11 entries as Luke Constantine returns and Alfie Campbell makes his debut. BMW Minis have the biggest class entry with 14 cars.
Action kicks off on Saturday 6th and will conclude at night. Sunday’s action will take later and finish earlier due to the stricter curfew imposed. Only the Supercar class will have 2 rounds with all other series having a single event.
Feature Image Credit: Overtake Motorsport
