Canterbury based Rallycross driver Tristan Ovenden made the second journey of the year to Pembrey Circuit home of Welsh Motorsport looking to build on his championship lead.

However, the day certainly didn’t start out in his favour. The track conditions were not ideal for the Goody Demolition backed driver as the surface was still very wet from overnight rain, making conditions extremely slippery.

Especially for the new track layout at turn one. After an uncharacteristic bad start in qualifying 1 due to stalling the car Ovenden left the grid in last place from his second row starting place.

He managed to claw his way back up to third place. A better start in qualifying 2 but again the tricky conditions hampered his progress up the field, instead he finished in third place for the second time.

After the lunch break the track had dried out considerably which suited Ovenden better and he was able to put this change of track conditions to good effect and recorded the fastest time for Q3.

This was enough to secure him the pole position for the final. After a great start and a timely taken joker on the penultimate lap he took the checkered flag with ease notching up yet another 30 championship points.

Ovenden now heads into the final round at Silverstone knowing a careful performance will see him retain his Supernational crown for a further year. With two drop scores to be taken into account in this year’s championship Ovenden is 26 and 29 points over his two closest rivals.

The championship will make its second visit to the jewel in British Motorsports crown, Silverstone on Sunday 4th November for what promises to be an action pack finale to this year’s championship. Track action gets underway at 09:00.

Speaking after the weekend, Ovenden said: “We had a really tough qualifying in the mornings wet conditions. Totally my mistake stalling in q1 and not having the pace I thought we would in q2. But, as the track dried, and some super-efficient work from the team to change from wet to dry set up. It suited us more and we managed a great result that I really didn’t see possible earlier in the day!”

Images courtesy of Matt Bristow