Twelve months ago, Oliver Bennett made his World RX debut at the World RX of Great Britain, during his first year of Rallycross Competition. Last weekend, the Xite Racing driver competed in the third event of a ten round programme in the 2018 FIA World Rallycross Championship.
The Bristol based driver is running a BMW Mini Cooper Supercar this season and The Checkered Flag spoke with the British driver after Qualifying had completed for the 2018 World RX of Great Britain.
Bennett pushed the Xite Racing Mini Cooper hard on home Turf, which led to a retirement in Q4. Credit: wiebke.langebeck
How would you sum up the 2018 World RX of Great Britain for you and the team?
“We’ve had a great event, we had some really good pace in the Practice sessions. The track dried up a bit over the weekend and that forced some setup changes on the car which caused some issues for us,” said Bennett.
“After the overnight rain, we made some changes to the car and with each session we’re still testing its limits. We found some more pace in the car which means I can push it harder to the ultimate pace.”
With your prior knowledge of the circuit from last year, how did you find it had changed and evolved over the weekend?
Bennett raced against the World RX regulars and several Euro RX drivers during the event at Silverstone. Credit: wiebke.langebeck
“The track has definitely evolved since the media event last year as there is a lot more grip in the surface. I was in the Ford Fiesta last year when I tried the track and in the Mini there seems to be more grip to be had,” explained the Xite Racing driver.
“Its definitely a challenging circuit where you need to find the right lines for the grip and to be on the pace.”
What have you learned from the car this weekend that you can improve upon during the rest of your World RX programme?
“We’ve finally got the start procedure for the car nailed down, that’s involved some changes of parts in the car to get the right biting points and it feels like we have that sorted out now,” explained Bennett.
“We’ve been working on the gearbox and also on some new differential changes tat will help give the car some more grip and also some more speed so that we can start to look at the top twelve places in future events.”
Xite Racing will tackle the 2018 World RX of Norway in the next race of their ten round programme. Credit: wiebke.langebeck
After the first three rounds of your programme this year, the World RX of Norway is next at Hell, is this an event your looking forward to?
“Its look like a great track to race on, although it doesn’t look technical I suspect its going to be a technical challenge to set the car up for with all of the elevation changes involved,” said Bennett.
“Entry speed, braking point and entry speed look to be key for the circuit layout and there’s also a jump there to work on for the car setup as well so we’ve learned a lot already.”
