British RallycrossEuropean Rallycross

Team RX Racing Progress From Germany To Mondello Park

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Ollie O’Donovan and Team RX Racing enjoyed a progressive and positive weekend at round two of the FIA European Rallycross Championship in Germany, with the aim of taking this step forward to this weekend’s rounds four and five of the MSA British Rallycross Championship.

O’Donovan enjoyed a strong start to his EuroRX weekend by maintaining his position inside the crucial top 12 positions that led to qualifying for the Semi-Finals. His heat races were some of the most exciting during the heat stages with Ollie winning his heat one race. Despite assistance in race two that led to his making contact with the barrier, O’Donovan was fast enough to finish in ninth overall to qualify for the Semi-Finals.

His improvement in pace was helped overnight on Saturday with a change of gear ratios on his new Tony Bardy Motorsport prepared Ford Fiesta Supercar. The london based Irishman would go on to finish in fifth place in his Semi-Final, but the speed and pace of the car is improving.

O’Donovan was very happy with his performance during his first visit to the Estering.

“This was my first time at the Estering and I really loved the track. When I walked around it on Friday I was a little bit daunted by all the difficult corners and big walls, but when I got into it the track came to me really nicely. We had a little boost problem in the semi-final but I don’t think it cost us any places. I was 50 meters behind the next car but had I had full boost I just think I would have been a bit closer to him. I’m very happy with finishing fifth,” said O’Donovan, who now lies tenth overall in the European Championship standings.

“We made good starts again all weekend apart from in heat three where I just didn’t see the start lights. Tony [Bardy] and the boys changed the gear ratios and that was a really big help. On Saturday I was feathering the throttle to keep the engine running at the hairpin and in the joker lap, but it was a load better for Sunday. Julian Godfrey did a bit of mapping work, which helped us too. This was the first time for me in a European semi-final at my second European round so I’m very happy with that,” he explained.

Both driver and team now move on to rounds four and five of BritishRX held at Mondello Park this weekend, which sees the debut of the Team RX Racing Fiesta in the series and hopefully an improvement in form in the UK Championship.

“The pressure is on for Mondello – my home race. I certainly need to try and get two wins to get my championship challenge on track. We had good pace in Germany so hopefully we can get ahead of Andy [Scott] and Julian [Godfrey] at Mondello. I think there are at least five people who could win but we will be trying very hard.”

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I have been a very passionate fan of Motorsport for over 30 years with Touring Cars as my favourite form of Motor Racing. I cover The TCR UK Series, The TCR Europe Series and The FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) as well as following various TCR Series around the world.
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