Ollie O’Donovan took on the best of the FIA World Rallycross Championship regulars as he competed in the World RX of France, round eight of the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship at the iconic Loheac circuit, also known as the “Temple of Rallycross.”
The former British Rallycross Champion took the opportunity to get some more track time in his Team RX Racing Ford Fiesta ahead of the next round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship which takes place in Barcelona on 17-18 of September, along with a few of the EuroRX regulars and a strong lineup from the French Rallycross Championship. The London based Irishman started of his Q1 race well by taking the win and setting the 21st fastest time before suffering from some very bad luck in Q2 where contact with another car caused damage to the Fiesta and saw him retire from the race.
As Day Two began with a slippery track and difficult conditions, O’Donovan started out early in Q3 where he braved the challenging conditions that would set a time to put him in 22nd overall. With his Q4 race looking to be in the same conditions, O’Donovan suffered another challenging race as contact sent the Tony Bardy Motorsport prepared Fiesta into a spin, however he was able to continue despite this and would go on to set a faster time that his race rivals which would see him placed in 23rd place overall in Q4 and classified in 27th place overall after Qualifying finished.
Despite a very challenging weekend, O’Donovan was pleased to have competed in what has been one of the biggest entries for a World RX event in 2016 and looking forward to moving on to the next round of Euro RX at Barcelona, “We brought some good updates to the Fiesta for Loheac and I was really looking forward to using the extra power we have now. The first day was good, despite not finishing Q2 after we got hit. But, I was very disappointed with the second day.
“I’m usually very confident in mixed conditions but we struggled. We didn’t have the setup perfect and I wasn’t driving as well as I could have done by any means,” he said. “I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the event, we had a really good time there and I do really like the circuit. I like the tight and twisty nature of it, but some weekends don’t go to plan. We are all really looking forward to Barcelona next week, where we had a really good result last year.”
