Tristan Ovenden negotiated the tricky conditions witnessed at Pembrey in Wales for Rounds 3 & 4 of the 2016 MSA British Rallycross Championship to keep his goal of an end of season top three finish in the Super1600 Class in sight.
With weather and track conditions getting worse over the course of the day and the third round taking place in the reverse direction of the welsh circuit, Ovenden guided the Peter Gwynne Motorsport prepared and run Suzuki Swift S1600 to second place place overall in Q1 behind winner Craig Lomax and then went on to record the second fastest time overall in Q2 as well. With Q3 abandoned, Ovenden qualified on the front row for the Final and kept up his form over the weekend by finishing in second place and setting the fastest lap time of the day of 1:07:056 in the process.
Round four saw the day begin with torrential rain and the decision was taken by the organisers to run both the Super1600 and SuperNational classes together in a bid to allow for both classes to get plenty of track time. With conditions drying out, Ovenden set the 10th fastest time in Q1 and then improved to set the 6th fastest time in Q2. However gearbox issues forced the team to take the decision to not run in Q3 and prepare the car for the Final. With the work completed, Ovenden rewarded the teams effort by securing fourth place at the flag.
Ovenden was happy with his overall performance from Pembrey, despite the challenge of the difficult conditions he faced, “I was hoping for a consistent trouble free weekend and that is what we achieved,” he said.
“The wet conditions suited me and the car much better, which contributed towards the good result in round 3. Monday, round 4 was looking good again until it dramatically dried up! but I still had a good run in the final, so overall a satisfying weekend.”