The JRM World RX Team showed an increased pace at the World RX of Sweden as Liam Doran was able to take the fight to the competition for a place in the Semi-Finals.
The British Bomb enjoyed the benefit of a pre-event test that brought further improvements to the new 2 litre turbocharged engine in the BMW Mini Supercar and when added to the difficult conditions on the first day of Qualifying, Doran was well placed to look to progress forward. Despite stalling in his Q1 race, the British driver was able to set a fast enough time in both Q1 and Q2 to sit in the vital 12th place in the overnight standings to aim to move forward on Day 2 for a Semi-final spot. Doran has already qualified for the Semi-Finals this year in both Portugal and Hockenheim, where he moved onto the Final.
However conditions at the Holjes circuit changed overnight for Q3 and Q4 which hampered Doran’s progress. In Q3, Doran completed his race in third place whilst in his Q4 race the British Bomb was unable to progress any higher than fourth place and this meant that the both driver and team would fall short of their goal for the event. However the form is there to fight with the established runners as JRM World RX look to work through the teething troubles of one of the most popular Supercars in the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship.
Doran took the positives from a competitive weekend, “I’m gutted that we didn’t make it through – especially after things started so positively yesterday. I really thought we had enough speed to trouble the guys around us today but it wasn’t to be. I’ll sit down with the guys in the team to work out where we can improve for the next round.”
Team Principle James Rumsey reaffirmed the teams efforts to improve further, “We had high hopes after yesterday’s qualifying rounds but, for some reason, that pace hasn’t translated into today’s races,” Rumsey explained. “We’re all hugely disappointed because we thought a third semi final appearance of the season was on the cards. But there’s a lot of determination to get the most out of the MINI RX and we all firmly believe it’s a car that can, in time, be challenging for top points in World RX. We’ll continue working towards that goal by unlocking more of the performance that we know is in the car.”
The next event after the summer break is the World RX of Canada where the team will expand to two BMW Mini Supercars as American driver Danny Way rejoins the team for the second half of the season.
