Champion wins round one

British Rallycross Championship at Lydden on Easter Monday (March 24). O'Donovan qualified on pole for the Supercar A final which he won and then took a clear victory in the Superfinal, but his path to victory was not as easy or clear cut as it may seem from that.

Snow left the track very wet for Sunday's first qualifying heat during which Pat Doran (Winkleigh) set the fastest time with O'Donovan second and Steve Mundy (Ludlow) a strong third.

The weather was better during the second day of the event and O'Donovan set fastest time with a race win in the second heat. There was another win in the third, but O'Donovan's duel with Dermot Carnegie (Dublin) had slowed his time and Liam Doran sprinted through to set fastest time in his Ford RS200.

O'Donovan shared the front row of the A final with the Dorans, Liam second and Pat in third place. The start of the A final was frenetic with several cars making contact as they slid into the still slippery first corner. At the end of the first lap it was Carnegie who led but the race was halted in the third lap when a suspension breakage caused Pat Doran to crash.

The restart was cleaner and this time O'Donovan, who had been stuck in the middle of the pack in the first race, broke free and led from start to finish as B final winner Steve Hill (Aylesbury) charged through to second place ahead of Carnegie and Lawrence Gibson (Banbridge).

It was a similar story in the Superfinal, O'Donovan claiming the overall event victory after leading from lights to flag. Hill again ran second, Carnegie making him work hard for the position with Gibson looking on in fourth place and running ahead of Tommy Graham (Prosperous) who started his year with a good fifth place in a car that is due to be replaced before the season is out. Belgian visitor Luc Maris won the SuperModified category and then took sixth in the Superfinal while Craig Brown (Northampton) took an outstanding seventh place in his Stock Hatch Peugeot.