Ovenden Motorsport will return this year to field a two-car team in the Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy, with former Supernational champion Tristan Ovenden racing in the headline Supercar class and 15-year-old Will Ovenden competing in the Junior RX.
Three-time Supernational title-winner Tristan Ovenden, who is also a former champion in the single-make Swift Sport series, finally stepped up to the top-flight Supercar category in 2020 with an ex-LD Motorsports, Goody Demolition backed-Citroen DS3, and last year achieved 5 Nations BRX podium finishes on his way to fifth in the standings.
Will Ovenden meanwhile contested his maiden rallycross season in 2021 in the single-make Suzuki Swift Motorsport UK Junior Rallycross Championship, following in the footsteps of older brother Tom, who claimed the Junior RX title in 2020. Will Ovenden impressed in his first full rallycross campaign, with consistent podium finishes towards the end of the year, at Knockhill and Lydden Hill, elevating him to second in the standings.
While Tom Ovenden, who is currently competing in circuit racing, will be on hand at events to assist the family team, Tristan and Will are both targeting consistent podium finishes to mount respective title challenges.
“We’ve made no massive changes to the Citroen over the winter, but we’ve continued to familiarise ourselves with how the DS3 works and have worked to improve on all areas a little bit,” said Tristan Ovenden. “Even though this will be our third season with this car, in reality they’ve not been normal seasons for the last two years, so we’ve had no time between events to do anything other than turn it around to keep it running. Hopefully we’ve made a bit more progress and have learnt more about how the car operates to get the best out of it. The level in Supercar has stepped up, but our hopes are to make podiums this year. From a championship point of view that’s all we’ve ever done, if you can get yourself on the podium regularly then the rest of the championship hopefully comes to you. I’m really excited for the new tracks. Mondello Park [Ireland] is really good, it’s fast but does have a tricky technical section, and Dreux [France] will be good too, somewhere new for us and with French rallycross being what it is, I think it will be a really good experience for everybody.”
Will Ovenden has high hopes for this year. “I’m hoping to get on the podium again few times this season, I’ve got the experience of last year behind me now and I know most of the tracks, so I’m going to push hard and hopefully we can get a win or two too. I think if I can get everything right, I can achieve that. It will be nice to have Tom with us at the 5 Nations BRX events, I’ve learned a lot from watching him, racecraft-wise with overtaking and defending in the last few years so I’m hoping to build on that too. I love racing at Lydden so I can’t wait to go there again for the first rounds.”
The British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy will get underway at Lydden Hill for a double-header weekend on April 16-18. See the full calendar below.
