The 5 Nations British Rallycross Championship season finale took place at Lydden Hill Circuit over the weekend of 5th / 6th November and it was a successful one for Kent’s Tristan Ovenden.

With a fireworks display on the Saturday night after night racing the season finale was set to be explosive both on track and off.

Canterbury based Rallycross driver Tristan Ovenden and his red and yellow team headed to their home circuit with the prospect that they could secure top three season finishes in both the Supercar class and the Juniors.

It was the first time that the British Championship has raced on the new Lydden Hill layout so expectations were high. The Motul backed driver and his team were confident heading into the event as they had already driven the new track changes earlier in the year at Nitro RX so knew what to expect.

Practice surprisingly started off in the dry, however this soon changed and proved the forecast correct and torrential rain soon set in. This change made the track conditions extremly difficult.

A second row start for qualifying 1 and Ovenden started off with a positive second, which placed him in fourth overall. A result he would copy for Qualifying 2. So at the intermediate stage he was sitting in fourth overall.

A front row start in the semi-final saw Ovenden nipping at the heals of third place around the newly banked Chessons and a timely joker saw him cross the line in first place. This gave him not only valuable championship points but also a front row start for the final.

However contact in turn one caused the engine to go shut down to protect itself due to a huge amount of dirt that had collected underneath the car.

After a long wait for confirmation of the ratified results by Motorsport UK stewards, due to the unusual circumstances of the final days racing being cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. The results and therefore the final championship standings were released on Friday 18th November 2022.

Both Tristan and Will completed their 2022 campaign in third place in the Supercar and Junior categories respectively.

Speaking after the weekend, Tristan Ovenden (#72) said: “What a day weather played a big part, and we had a poor grid draw too. But qualify was pretty good, to be second, so it was a shame the final didn’t work out with a bit of contact at turn one and then the belt coming off.”

“Still a great fun circuit to drive even with the limited visibility, and lucky enough to have great support at our home race, despite the weather. So it’s an even bigger thanks out to the red and yellow race team for sticking at it in the conditions.”

“It’s amazing for us both to finish in third spot for the year. The icing on the cake is that Tom who races in The Mini Challenge BTCC support class also finished in third!”

Pictures supplied by Matt Bristow Photography.