O’Donovan reigns in the wet at Lydden Hill
Ollie O’Donovan won the penultimate round of the MSA British Rallycross Championship in association with the Shannon Group at Lydden Hill , heading home Yorkshire’s Kevin Procter by under half a second.
Procter was on pole in his Ford Fiesta, with Julian Godfrey also in a Fiesta in the middle with the Albatec Racing Peugeot 208 of Andy Scott on the outside of the front row.O’Donovan was on the second row of the grid in his Fiesta with the Citroën DS3 of Pat Doran alongside.
Row three was completed by Andy Grant in his Ford Focus, alongside Steve Hill in the Mitsubishi, and B Final winner Mark Flaherty in the Ford Focus.
O’Donovan made a great start from the second row, and got the better of Procter into the run down to the first corner, with Pat Doran moving into third place as Scott and Julian Godfrey were joined by Flaherty in taking the joker lap from the outset.
O’Donovan led from Procter and Doran, with Andy Grant in the Focus in fourth as Godfrey made a move on Steve Hill. Pat Doran went for his joker on the second lap as well as Andy Grant and Steve Hill. This moved Godfrey into third, with Andy Scott now into fourth with Pat Doran in fifth.
On the next lap O’Donovan took his joker and came out behind Procter in the running order and ahead of with current champion Godfrey still holding onto third place overall. The wet conditions made grip difficult, but the final was shaping up to be a very good race.Procter was next to joker and came out fractionally ahead of O’Donovan, but the Irishman had the momentum and battled with Procter and took the lead back just as the cars headed up the hill. Scott got the better of Godfrey for third.
Procter made a move on the outside down the hill on the last lap, but O’Donovan held his line and took the victory in a very closely fought final to just edge out Procter. Scott was third with Julian Godfrey taking fourth, Pat Doran fifth and Mark Flaherty sixth. Steve Hill was seventh with Andy Grant eighth.
Just over one second covered the top four, in one of the best races of the season and at the finish O’Donovan said “That was a great race to be involved in, no matter who won. Kevin pushed hard and so did Andy, but it is a nice victory to get.”
Result
1stOllie O’Donovan Ford Fiesta 3:25.589
2ndKevin Procter Ford Fiesta 3:25.809
3rdAndy Scott Peugeot 208 3:26.143
4thJulian Godfrey Ford Fiesta 3:26.817
5thPat Doran Citroën DS3 3:29.459
6thMark Flaherty Ford Focus 3:32.395
7thSteve Hill Mitsubishi 3:33.434
8th Andy Grant Ford Focus 3:36.642
Full event report to follow