Canterbury’s Tristan Ovenden headed West to Mondello Park Circuit in Ireland to contest the double header of the Toyo Tires British Rallycross Championship rounds 4 and 5.

Ovenden was joint second before the weekend so the Kent driver was looking to push hard to improve his championship standing.

The first days racing would see the Irish circuit run in reverse direction, something new for the visiting British drivers. A new track layout wasn’t all the drivers had to contend with the sunny dry weathers by product was a very dusty track making visibility very, very difficult.

This didn’t deter the Goody Demolition backed driver as he got straight down to business and recorded straight wins in all three of his qualifying heats and saw him on top at the intermediate classification stage. A pole start for his semi-final saw a lights to flag victory and in turn earned Ovenden the coveted pole position for the final. A trade mark great start saw him out front looking like a win was a certainty, however the track had just been watered and was very slippery making it difficult for the powerful Clio to get all its power down. Ovenden only lost the lead on the final lap when he took his joker. He crossed the line in second place.

Sundays Round 5 got underway under grey skies after overnight rain making track conditions treacherous a lowely 13th place for Q1, but as the track dried out Ovenden’s driving skill came to the forefront he was rewarded by being the fastest in both the remaining qualifying heats.

At the Intermediate classification stage the Kent man was sitting in fourth place. He started his semi-final from the second row and drove to a spectacular win and claimed yet another pole position for the final. A lights to flag win in the final netted Ovenden his first Supernational outright event win.

The near perfect weekend means that Ovenden has distanced the drivers behind him in the championship and closed the gap to the top spot.

At the seasons mid-point he is less than 20 points adrift from the championship leader
The championship now moves back to Ovenden’s home circuit of Lydden Hill for round 6 which will be held on August Bank Holiday Monday. Racing will get underway at 09:00 where he hopes to once again secure the top podium place in front of his home crowd.

Speaking after an excellent weekend, Ovenden said: “I was a bit excited when crossed the line…so much so I smashed off the rear view mirror by mistake whilst celebrating!

“Great performance all weekend, I just didn’t quite have enough pace with the slippery track in the final on Saturday. So it was brilliant to keep the speed all day Sunday and get that win.

“We had some different people helping us who gave up their weekend to make it happen, so we owe a huge thank you to them. We still have a few bits on the car to work on, but looking forward to the next round at Lydden.”

Images courtesy of Matt Bristow