All the spoils from from Round 1 of the British Rallycross Championship go to Andy Scott. After a near faultless performance with two heat wins and a second which went to secure him pole position in the A final. During the final Scott lead from start to finish even making it look easy finishing 6 seconds ahead of second placed Ollie O’Donovon with Kevin Procter just slightly behind for third. Reigning Champion Julian Godfrey had to work hard for his sixth place after finding himself in unfamiliar territory having to win the B-Final after suffering transmission problems earlier in the day.
Supercar new comer Jeffrey Dolan
O’Donovon was however not behind the wheel of his new Tony Bardy prepared Fiesta supercar due to engine problems. Infact when arriving at the circuit on Sunday morning he wasn’t sure which car he would be driving!
Regardless of result the Supercar action was easily the best it has been for years. Crowd favorite Pat Doran secured a solid fourth place as if he hadn’t had last season away from the sport. New comer Geoffrey Dolan in his Opal Astra appeared to find the step-up to supercars a steep learning curve but settled in throughout the day and he will certainly be one to watch as the season progresses. Infact any of the bumper 11 supercar entries could have challenged for the honours. Take into account that there are more supercars to enter into the frey later in the season and we could have supercar entertainment on a par with the days of Will Gollop!
Gary Simpson saw off the rest of the Supermodified field to claim top honours
In the supernational class defending champion Stuart Emery had a dismal day having to retire after just three laps of the 1st heat with catastrophic engine failure. It was seasoned Supernational campaigner Gary Simpson who took the honours keeping fellow seasoned driver Alan Tapscott and new comer Daniel Rooke at bay.
Tristan Ovenden picked up where he left off in the Suzuki’s
In the highly popular and competitive Suzuki Swift Sport where pretty much any of the entries had the ability to cause an upset, but 2014 champion Tristan Ovenden continued where he left off last year with a perfect days racing.
“The anticipation of a new season, especially this year, with lots of new drivers makes the opening round an exciting one and carrying the number 1 on the Goody Demoltion Swift created even more expectation! So I was very pleased to go through the meeting finding out that we were still very competitive. The car felt good all day and we managed to stay incident free to post the fastest times in all 3 heats. In the final we just needed a good start and I thought we’d do well. The start was good and led through the first corner and although I did make a mistake on lap 3 which allowed the field to close up I then put 3 good laps together to take the win.” said Ovenden afterwards.
The only disappointing class was the much hyped and anticipated Super1600 with only a single entry from Craig Lomax. However Lomax’s new car was very impressive even running against the more powerful Supermodified cars. Any of the other Super1600 hopefulls watching will now realise the bar has been set very high!
In other classes. BMW Mini was a one, two for the Hudson brothers. The Hot Hatch honours were taken by Tomasz Wielgosz from Paul Maybourne and Stephen Gaunt. In the RX150’s it was guest driver Dave Bellerby with Kevin Feeney and Chrissy Palmer in second and third places respectively. Drew Bellerby started the year as she means to go on in the juniors.
Round 2 now moves to Lydden Hill in Kent for its traditional Easter Monday meeting on 6th April.
