Kent’s Tristan Ovenden was back in action at his home circuit of Lydden Hill for rounds 9 and 10 of the Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy.

It was to be an explosive finale with fireworks on the Saturday and night racing on both days.

The Witham Motorsport supported driver had one goal in sight and that was to finish the championship in third place, so an all-out assault was the order of the day!

After Q1 and Q2 he found himself in 7th position which gave him a tricky second row grid place for his semi-final, but after a terrific battle finished in 3rd place securing a back row start for the final.

This served him well as there was mayhem at turn one of the final, as he watched it unfold in front of him, he kept a cool head and leap frogged himself into the top three a place a position he kept, claiming his second podium of the year.

Sunday and the Goody Demolition backed driver was ready to go again. The car however had developed a spurious engine problem, which the team worked hard to rectify, but Ovenden found himself down on power all day.

As a testament to the team, he made the final on the middle of the third row in 7th place. As the race unfolded he managed to claw his way into 5th place by the time he took the flag.

This saw him tied on points for third place for the championship. But closely losing out on count back, a gut-wrenching repeat of the 2023 campaign saw him loose out on a podium championship place. Leaving the Canterbury based driver yet again wondering what could have been. 

Tristan Ovenden – Supercar (#72) said of the weekend:

“Very pleased with the results and that is entirely down to the team. We had different random engine problems in practice both days which hampered our qualifying and semi-final results.”

“We did really well to get into the final in the first place. The car ran really well in the final Saturday and I was feeling good so was confident that we could get a decent result. To get third was brilliant in front of a huge crowd and a perfect evening.”

“The final on Sunday was going to be a struggle because of the problem in practice that we have been nursing all day and we would’ve been very happy with fifth if it wasn’t for the championship situation. We gave it a go and it was a really tight finish to the line on the last lap a great race but not quite what we were hoping for.”

“To miss out on 3rd for the championship is a shame, but in hindsight, we hadn’t really been in that position all season because of the inconsistent results we’ve had. Simply decent speed too many mechanical failures at the wrong time. So, we have work to do over the winter!”

“Thank you very much to all our sponsors, supporters and the team this season. I hope they had a fantastic time at the weekend, it certainly looked amazing from where I was!”

Will Ovenden was also back in action in the Swift Sport category looking to wrap up the 2024 Championship. He was kept honest by Matt Cake, but ultimately won all but one race the entire weekend. He is the third Ovenden to claim the Swift Sport Championship top spot. His Dad in 2014 and 2015 and his uncle Simon in 2017.