Canterbury based Rallycross driver Tristan Ovenden made his first supercar outing of the 2021 season at Lydden Hill for rounds 1 and 2 of the Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy over the weekend of 29th May 2021.
The stage was set for an epic weekends racing, all the correct ingredients were in place with the British summertime finally making an appearance and the first post Covid meeting with spectators.
The Goody Demolition and Morris Lubricants backed driver made a steady start and at the end of qualification 3 was sitting in a comfortable mid table position.
After opting to take the joker on the first lap which enabled him clear tack to then reel the rest of the field back in. as the race progressed and the field all jokered as well. Ovenden narrowly missed out on the semi final victory by just 3 tenths of a second.
The final saw Ovenden line up on the second row of the grid for the final after avoiding a stalled Donnelly on the line he found himself in third place into Chessons. Opting to dive into his joker lap on the second lap which turned to his advantage as he was able to regain his third place as the rest of the field took theirs.
Ovenden eventually took the flag in third place and in doing so clinching his first podium in a supercar. The Bank Holiday Monday saw round 2 take place.
After all qualifying rounds the Kent racer sat in a similar place as he did for round one just two days previously. Keeping consistency, he yet again took second place this time missing out on the win by a mere second. Starting the final in the familiar second row saw Ovenden in the leading group of 4 cars with nothing between any of them.
He stayed out of the joker to lead the race on penultimate lap. Eventually rejoining in forth place. As he came round the final corner however he was T-boned losing a sure fourth place and instead nursing the car home in 7th .
Speaking after the weekend’s racing, Ovenden said: “Wow …what an amazing weekend. Super competitive racing, Spectators back, the weather, it was all there. Absolutely made up with our first podium in Round 1 on Saturday and we would like to dedicate that to Matt O 74 who we sadly lost a few weeks ago. He would have enjoyed that one!
“We are also very pleased with the overall performance in Round 2 on Monday, even though we missed out on 4th with an incident at last corner of the final. Brilliant work from the #redandyellowracing – Ovenden Motorsport team, I think we completed every lap over both days.Just! So hats off to them.
“The support we have received leading up to this weekend from family, friends, sponsors and supporters has been incredible and we hope they all had a great time, and we thank them all very much.
Images Courtesy of Matt Bristow Photography