Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Ovenden opens account with victory double
Adisham’s Will Ovenden claimed back-to-back victories in the Swift Sport Rallycross Championship as Lydden Hill opened this year’s British Rallycross 5 Nations Trophy and its support races. Racing at his home circuit, Ovenden headed Hythe’s Chris O’hara and debutant Matt Cake (Ashford) on Saturday, Cake’s father, Chris, was ruled out of the action by an accident in qualifying. O’hara was again second on Monday with Canterbury’s returning Andrew Sage completing the podium. Faversham’s Max Weatherley claimed the first-ever win in
the Cross-car category on Saturday ahead of Luke Holly and the highest-placed of the RX150
Rallycross Championship runners, Stephen Jones. Supercar racer Patrick
O’donovan joined the grid for Monday’s event, along with debutant Richard Rees. O’donovan qualified on pole with his RX150, but was forced off track in turn one. Rees would ultimately claim the final win, by just 0.055 seconds ahead of O’donovan. Weatherley completed the Cross-car rostrum. Father-son duo Ollie and Patrick O’donovan claimed a victory apiece in the opening two rounds of the main event, the Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship. Ollie, the 2007 title-winner, claimed his first victory in almost six years on Saturday, passing Patrick for the win. In Monday’s final, despite a stall, Patrick O’donovan passed multiple cars on the opening laps before hunting down race leader John Mccluskey and using an alternative joker lap strategy to move into the lead and take an empathic win.
Mccluskey was second and Adisham’s Tristan Ovenden was fifth.
Esports racer Wesley Wickens secured a maiden 5 Nations victory at his home circuit on Saturday in the BMW Mini Rallycross Championship ahead of Abbie Mcguinness and Paddock Wood’s Leigh-anne Sedgwick.
It was a different story in the final on Sunday, Wickens rolling his car after first-corner contact. In the re-started race, Sedgwick claimed victory.