The world’s best rallycross racers gathered at Lydden Hill for round 4 of the World Rallycross championship headlining the circuits biggest event of the year.

A capacity supercar entry ahead of the weekend set the stage for a great showdown, in which tens of thousands of spectators packed the small Canterbury based track; ready to cheer on names such as WRC-star Peter Solberg, multiple DTM champion Mattias Ekstrom and BTCC front runner Andrew Jordan as they do battle – but with most the attention falling the way of local hero, Liam Doran as he attempted to win on home soil.

Solberg would kick the weekend off in style winning his heats on Saturday, setting some of the fastest times in the process – this all set up him nicely for all important finals on Sunday. Leading from the front in the supercar final he would claim his second overall victory of the year, to further extend his championship lead. He would not have it easy as Mattias Ekstrom, in the Audi was hot on his heals throughout the final, finishing within touching distance of the 2014 champion.

Liam Doran would give it all he had in front of his home crowd, but would struggle to find the pace and luck needed to progress through to the semi-final stages. Yet, he did not disappoint, putting on a specular show with his unique style of maximum attack – tyre smoke pouring off the tyres in all the turns with no-fear aggression.

National hopes would not be lost with the demise of Doran, guest racer and British Rally Champion, Guy Wilks would impress on his series debut, progressing through to the main final in his Mini. Unfortunately, before he could get stuck in and content for out right honours, a front left puncture would end his day early, leaving him to claim 6^th overall – not bad for a rookie in a field of superstars. Andrew Jordan, on return to the series for his annual outing would place as high as 5^th in the second semi-final, just missing out on a final spot, but for someone with little seat time in the cars each year – a great showing for the MG touring car racer.

Besides Doran, local interest would be with Tristan Ovenden – the 2014 British Swift Rallycross champion, would be making his debut in the RX lites championship. With only test miles under his belt, he would be getting his first taste of the series door-to-door action at his local track in front of the largest crowd he’d ever raced for.

After a shaky start, Ovenden would recover and make it through to the semi-final stages, in which he would claim 5^th – falling a couple spots short of a final spot in his first RX lites meeting.

Between the all-out rallycross action, the crowds were treated to drift demos and Group B displays, showing casing the iconic machinery of yester-year – Metros, RS200s and so on.

Overall, a hugely successful event hosted by Lydden Hill, which attracted a record crowd – it’s fair to say, Rallycross has it’s popularity back!