The 2021 British Rallycross season took place across 4 weekends and 7 rounds. It came down to an all Irish battle for the title between Ollie O’Donovan and Derek Tohill.
Lydden Hill – Opening Weekend Surprises
The 2021 British Rallycross Championship kicked off at a sunny Lydden Hill in May for a double header event. The Supercar grid looked the strongest it had been in a number of years with it seeming like 5 different drivers could win, those being Ollie O’Donovan, Julian Godfrey, Derek Tohill, Andy Scott and reigning champion Mark Donnelly. Staying on for another season were Steve Hill, Tristan Ovenden, Roger Thomas and Mike Sellar. Connor McCloskey and Latvian, Roberts Vitols joined the opening weekend with Vitols taking part thanks to winning the Super 1600 class in 2020.
Round 1 saw Donnelly comfortably win qualifying while others tried to overcome their issues. The semi-final looked like an easy win for the GB1 car but Donnelly had actually broken the suspension with 2 laps to go. He was able to win but the car was unfixable for the final. Behind, Scott was exiting the joker lap side-by-side with O’Donovan and came down to take the racing line. The pair made contact and Scott was spat out onto the infield. Having lost a heap of time the Albatec team boss crawled round to save the car for the next round in a couple days time.
Image Credit: Overtake Motorsport
Come the final Donnelly from pole immediately pulled off and O’Donovan took the race lead from 3rd on the grid. Second place Godfrey had made a poor start allowing O’Donovan past. Godfrey would go onto retire but out front was the Team RX Racing owner, O’Donovan. He jokered on lap 4 and came out behind Vitols who was yet to joker, or was he?
Going back to the race start Vitols from 5th on the grid had dived to the joker lap first after 3rd place O’Donovan had instead gone for the race lead. That left the Latvian with clean air which he used. He was fortunate not to be held up by any drivers yet to joker so on lap 4 he took the race lead. From there he extended the gap and became the first ever Latvian driver to win a British Rallycross round.
In the paddock his family were there to congratulate him along with O’Donovan, the first driver to go up to him. The points system meant O’Donovan lead the series from Donnelly, Godfrey, Ovenden who finished 3rd and then Vitols who had a terrible time in qualifying.
Roberts Vitols – “This morning I did my first proper run in the car. Came a long way. Made a small adjustment before the final and it payed off big time.”
Round 2 took place on the bank holiday Monday.
Donnelly was first in qualifying again as Tohill showed good pace in second place. Despite trying to save his car in the round 1 semi-final Scott suffered a turbo failure in practice which meant he couldn’t run the first 2 qualifying sessions. He rebounded with a heat win and then went onto win his semi-final.
The other semi-final saw Roger Thomas win after Donnelly suffered a seized turbo. Godfrey was running slowly on 3 cylinders but only 4 cars had started after Mike Sellar suffered a coolant leak in the staging area. As Thomas took the chequered flag the underside of his car burst into flame. His power steering had leaked but the Welsh driver didn’t realise until he was told to stop by the marshals.
The final was contact heavy. At the start Tohill from 6th made an amazing start to go 3rd. Scott tried an overtake on leader Thomas but ran wide allowing Tohill through. At the Devil’s Elbow Thomas ran wide gifting the lead to Tohill who used the clear air to pull out a slight gap. When he jokered O’Donovan was right behind and went for a move into the Devil’s Elbow. They made contact with O’Donovan briefly launched skyward.
Going up the hill Tohill kept his lead but Scott dived down the inside to try and take 2nd. Heavy contact between the pair forced Scott up the inside. Exiting the hairpin O’Donovan cut back down and pushed Scott onto the grass and towards a tyre wall. Scott backed out to avoid a large accident but held onto 3rd place. Further back, Thomas and Ovenden made contact a couple of times with Ovenden spinning on the final corner with a broken toe arm.
Tohill won on his return to British Rallycross and ignited his championship challenge after a dismal round 1.
Pembrey – Normal Service Resumed?
The next stop was Pembrey and a return to Wales for the British Rallycross Championship. It was a reduced field of 8 cars after Andy Scott pulled out having already dropped 20 points behind Donnelly. This would also be the only event that was not a double header.
Godfrey dominated the weekend, comfortably winning qualifying, his semi-final and the final. Vitols was second quickest in qualifying and after a poor start in the final came back to 2nd place. O’Donovan was 3rd in the final having won Q1. Hill showed impressive pace almost winning Q3 before letting Godfrey slip by.
Tohill and Donnelly both struggled through the weekend with a number of issues. They both made contact in Q4 damaging their suspensions in the process. In the final Tohill tried to work his way through the field but made contact with Ovenden and suffered a puncture which dropped him to last.
Godfrey won his first race in almost 2 years with Vitols second. The title fight looked like a 5 way fight with seemingly every driver in the series having the pace to win. O’Donovan led but Godfrey and Vitols were 1 point back with Tohill in 5th 9 back from first.
Image Credit: Overtake Motorsport
Knockhill – Down to 2
The first trip north of the border since 2014 loomed. The fast and bumpy Knockhill circuit made a return to British Rallycross with 8 cars racing.
On Saturday Ollie O’Donovan won his only qualifying session of the year and followed that with a semi-final win. Donnelly’s car caught fire in Practice but was fixed in time for Q2. The final saw the only bit of wet weather running all year with a light shower during the race.
O’Donovan vaulted into the lead while Vitols was left on the start line after accidentally turning the car off rather than engaging launch control. The lead then changed hands a number of times as first O’Donovan spun off on the wet kerbs. Hill took the lead and looked set to win his first race in over a decade. However a drive shaft failure left him with rear wheel drive only and he spun out of contention. Vitols came through it all after setting a series of laps 2 seconds quicker than anyone else. He avoided being held behind anyone else in part thanks to the large Joker lap delta at Knockhill.
When he did Joker he was the new leader and took his second victory of the year. O’Donovan recovered to 2nd with Ovenden bagging another 3rd place finish. Godfrey didn’t even start the final having suffered engine failure in the semi-final.
“While turning on ALS I accidentally clicked the ignition button off. Pressing the pedals nothing’s happening, dash went blank. Then just 6 laps, put my head down. Three times I almost lost in [turn 1]” Roberts Vitols
Overnight Mark Donnelly announced he would quit the series having suffered a high number of issues in 2021. Godfrey’s car didn’t have a working engine so it was quickly organised that he would race Donnelly’s car on Sunday instead.
Sunday looked to be going Vitols’ way until lap 3 of Q1. In hindsight the cones separating the joker lap and standard lap did not extend far enough. But as it was it meant the racing line for a Supercar cut across the exit of the joker lap. As Vitols came through the final corner he used all the road and made heavy contact with O’Donovan who was exiting the detour. Vitols had a large suspension failure but kept the car out of the wall. It took most of the day to fix the issue and meant he didn’t finish Q1 or Q2 but came back and won Q3. However, as he hadn’t finished 2 sessions he didn’t score points in qualifying. This cost him 18 points and dropped him out of contention
The most spectacular moment was taken by Julian Godfrey at the end of Q2. His car burst into flames with Hill and the marshals able to quickly put it under control. Remarkably the car was fixed for Q3.
Julian Godfrey “As I was coming down onto the gravel I could see some fluid. I thought it was windscreen washer fluid. And then woof, up in flames it went.”
Image Credit: Overtake Motorsport
Meanwhile Tohill was able to put in a perfect weekend by winning qualifying, semi-final and final. He survived contact with O’Donovan off the line and from there cruised to victory. Vitols recovered to 2nd place having dropped down the order at the start with Godfrey in the Citroen DS3 3rd. O’Donovan would be penalised for hitting the track limit cones and dropped him to 6th, his worst finish of the season.
With Donnelly leaving the series, Godfrey failing to start a final and Vitols losing qualifying points it left O’Donovan in first with Tohill 10 points back
Lydden Hill 2 – Sparks fly
With the original season finale at Spa set to be cancelled Lydden Hill was made into a double header event. Jack Thorne made his return to the top class after exchanging a rally car with Andy Scott’s Peugeot 208. Dom Flitney brought the Volvo brand back to BRX having purchased a Volvo C30 from Frode Holte. Both would be guest entrants and didn’t affect the championship points.
Thorne made a perfect start to the weekend winning the 2 qualifying sessions. Tohill was the top championship runner qualifying 2 places higher than O’Donovan. With each position being 1 point that meant the gap was down to 8. They both lined up in the same semi-final with Tohill once again edging out O’Donovan, this time by less than a second. With the points gap down to just 7 heading into the night time final the tensions rose.
3rd place O’Donovan was able to squeeze across into first with Tohill second and Thorne in third at the start. Vitols from 4th jokered on lap 2 with Tohill and Thorne responding the following lap. Vitols took over second place and looked set to take the lead soon when O’Donovan jokered. However, it was the gap between the 2 Irish championship challengers that was the most important. O’Donovan responded on lap 4. Vitols had taken first place but the 2 drivers behind were side by side.
O’Donovan tried to take the racing line but with Tohill exiting Chessons next to him the pair made contact. They were almost glued together through Chessons until they hit the brakes into the Devil’s Elbow. O’Donovan braked later and as his car moved past Tohill’s his right rear ripped off the triple Irish champs front bumper. This managed to puncture O’Donovan’s right rear tyre. He immediately ran wide and lost 2 positions in quick succession. Ovenden drove past as well but O’Donovan looked to retake the position at the hairpin. He made contact and punctured the left front wheel. The car was now hobbling and he spun at the chicane. Teammate Hal Ridge who was making his rallycross return retired from the race gifting O’Donovan 6th place points and 7th in the race.
Out front Vitols held onto his lead to win for the 3rd time. Thorne made a late race pass on Tohill without consequence for the championship. Tohill took 2nd place points, 4 more than his rival which closed the margin to just 3 points.
Derek Tohill “If Ollie is joining off the joker, the car on the main track has right of way. To come across and push me towards the tractor tire [polystyrene barrier] he actually should get a penalty for that.”
Ollie O’Donovan “I didn’t mind [first] contact with Derek. I was in front of him, and then bang, bang, bang, bang on this corner here. This isn’t rallycross.”
On Sunday Tohill once again was quickest of the championship entrants though Thorne once again won qualifying. O’Donovan was best of the rest in third though had lost a further point. Tohill then won his semi-final while O’Donovan could only manage 3rd albeit behind non-scoring Thorne closing the margin to just 1 point.
In the final Tohill made the best start to take the race lead while O’Donovan could only follow Godfrey into the joker lap. Tohill was then able to run the race at his own pace without pushing too hard. Thorne managed to use the joker lap to take the race lead but it still left Tohill bagging maximum championship points for the second time all season. O’Donovan came home in 5th place and for the first time since August lost the championship lead. But the season wasn’t over yet…
Post Season – A Champion is crowned.
The season was over. It was official. The Spa Francorchamps round in December had been cancelled and a replacement event at the Nurburgring or Mondello Park with the Irish Rallycross Championship didn’t come to fruition. But the Supercar champion had not been officially crowned.
Ollie O’Donovan had put a protest in after the Saturday final arguing that Tohill had been to blame for the contact. The stewards had that day decided that no action was required, a similar verdict to that at round 1 when Scott was spun out when rejoining from the joker lap.
However, after the weekend O’Donovan appealed this decision on the grounds the stewards had not followed proper procedure. The Motorsport UK National Courts saw Inquiry J2021/20 at the end of November to reassess the situation. The courts agreed the stewards had not followed the correct processes, “We are satisfied that the judicial procedures … were flawed and that in both cases there were defaults, omissions, irregularities or inconsistencies.”
Despite this they came to the same conclusion of the stewards that night, “Approaching the issue of fact afresh we conclude that it is not possible to find, on the balance of probability, that either driver was wholly or predominantly to blame for the incident.”
The results stood and Derek Tohill became the 2021 British Rallycross Champion on the spot.
2022 looks set to be contended across 6 weekends, 2 at Lydden Hill, 2 at Pembrey, 1 at Mondello and 1 more at a TBC in Europe. The Supercar class could well grow with a few cars currently in the works over the winter. It means there could be the strongest British Rallycross Supercar field in over 5 years. After a truly spectacular season in 2021 we can only hope there is more of that to come next season.
Derek Tohill “I have not had much of a chance to reflect. Plus there has been no prize giving as yet. But I did just receive my invite to MSUK’s Night of Champions at Pall Mall beside Buckingham Palace in London, that felt special.”
Image Credit: Overtake Motorsport
Feature Image Credit: Overtake Motorsport
