Patrick O’Donovan has now taken the lead of the Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy presented by Cooper Tires points standings with a second win in two days at Pembrey Circuit in South Wales. Just as he had in round three on Saturday, and despite the circuit being altered to run in a clockwise direction for round four, O’Donovan dominated, winning every single session before leading both his semi-final and the final from the front to secure his second win of the weekend in Wales.
Behind the 18-year-old, things were less straightforward, but it was Steve Hill who pushed his Mitsubishi Evo hard to finish second, the experienced racer overtaking the Ford Fiesta of six-time champion Julian Godfrey at the final corner to snatch the position after Godfrey suffered from a broken right-rear suspension following contact with Derek Tohill ‘s Ford Fiesta as the reigning Supercar champion exited the joker lap. The incident put Tohill out of the race, and it was Ollie O’Donovan who finished fourth in his Ford Focus, the London-based Irishman having switched to Team RX Racing’s Ford Focus for round four. Bradley Westgarth scored a career-best result in fifth, driving Milldown Racing’s Mitsubishi Evo, while Tristan Ovenden lost time on the opening lap in his Citroen DS3 but recovered to finish sixth.
In the Motorsport UK Supernational Rallycross Championship, Vauxhall VX220 driver Jason Bleasdale continued an unbeaten run by winning round four at Pembrey. He was challenged through the final by both the Lotus Exige of Paige Bellerby and the twin car of his own brother Darren Bleasdale who eventually finished second and third respectively.
Max Watt stormed to a maiden victory in the Motorsport UK Junior Rallycross Championship with a pair of fastest times in Q1 and Q3 securing his pole position for the final which he led from the front. He took his joker on lap two to cover off reigning champion Max Langmaid, who had jokered on lap one, to maintain track position, then moved back into the lead when both Will Ovenden and Owen Robbins took their own joker laps. Langmaid finished second with points-leader Robbins in third.
In the BMW MINI Rallycross Championship, Bradley Turner qualified in pole position and led throughout the final to claim victory. He was chased early on by Dave Bellerby who missed out on a chance of victory by taking his joker early in the race losing time behind another car meaning that he hadn’t done quite enough to catch Turner when the leader took his joker. Ben Sayer used an early joker lap strategy from third position on lap one to climb his way back through the field to secure the final spot. Martin Hawkes claimed the spoils in the All4 Mini category, but was the only finisher after David Bell pulled off mid-final with mechanical troubles.
Ray Morgan pushed his Ford Escort to overtake the early leader John Cross’ Lancia Stratos to drive to victory in the Super Retro Championship final, ahead of Cross and the Peugeot 205 of Jamie McBain on his maiden Retro Rallycross weekend. As the cars ran bunched together for much of the final, McBain found a way to overtake Vince Bristow‘s BMW E36 and snatch the last podium place. Tony Lynch dominated the Retro Rallycross category in his Toyota MR2, winning every qualifying race and then leading the final throughout to claim the win. Simon Hart finished second in his Ford Escort, with Paul Smith‘s Volkswagen Polo coming in third place.
James Constantine led the Swift Sport Rallycross Championship final in the opening stages from reigning champion Max Weatherley before the pair later swapped positions. Constantine applied a lot of pressure to Weatherley right until the end of the race, the pair separated by just 1.5 seconds. Chris O’Hara finished third, while Luke Constantine dropped out of the podium battle on the opening lap and later retired.
Hungarian driver Krisztian Szabo dominated round four of the RX150 Championship, winning every session to claim his maiden RX150 victory on his first weekend of 5 Nations BRX competition. British Rally Championship driver Ruairi Bell also went one better than his result in round three to finish second, while Ben Hardy claimed his second career podium, with third place.
