O’donovans on top as British Rallycross begins
LYDDEN HILL BRX 30 MARCH/1 APRIL
Father-and-son team Ollie and Patrick O’donovan swept the board in the opening British Rallycross weekend at Lydden Hill.
O’donovan Sr, the 2007 champion, entered the campaign embarking on a title effort having not won a round of the series in almost six years, but with five title runner-up placings in the past eight seasons. His son Patrick, meanwhile, had been the driver to beat over the most recent two terms, although the 19-year-old’s 2024 attack is not in the Peugeot 208 WRX with which he defended his title last year, but with the Ford Fiesta in which he was successful in 2022.
Even in the older car, O’donovan Jr was the only driver to get near Q1 pacesetter Oliver Bennett’s time on Saturday and, when Mini racer Bennett lost out in a first-corner Q2 scrum, O’donovan capitalised to stop the clocks first. Bennett’s weekend then got worse, water pump issues sidelining him before the semi-finals.
In the knock-out semi-final races, O’donovan Sr bettered his son with joker-lap strategy to win the first encounter in his Proton Iriz, while the Citroen DS3 of six-time champion Julian Godfrey won semi-final two to secure pole for the final. The engineer-turned-driver jumped the start, earning himself an extra joker lap, but Godfrey still claimed third place. Up front, O’donovan Jr slowed in the closing laps, allowing his father to take the advantage. Michael Leonard (Fiesta) lost time and ultimately dropped to fourth after a final-lap joker. He was later excluded for his onboard judicial camera not working, promoting Steve Hill’s Mitsubishi.
Things got better still for Hill in round two on Monday, despite enduring an opening-corner accident in Q1, then suffering a broken steering rack on his way to making the final. But, in the main event, as others hit trouble, Hill drove a clean and fast race to finish third, on his 74th birthday.
At the front, the O’donovan duo had qualified 1-2, but Ollie was out in the semis with an engine issue and Patrick suffered a puncture and lost the semi-final win. Clutch woe for polesitter Leonard on the startline removed him from contention in the final, while team-mate John Mccluskey led for half the race.
But the British RX returnee could do nothing about O’donovan Jr’s sublime drive. A stall meant he was sixth away from the line, but he overtook two cars on lap one and another two in the opening corner of lap two before passing Mccluskey to win in his ageing machine.