A rare opportunity for a Latvian motorsports driver to compete on a Monday. This is how next week will begin for Roberts Vītolas, who will compete in the second round of the British Rallycross Championship on Monday at the Leadenhill track.
Roberts and his main support – his family – have been in the UK since Thursday evening, both experiencing Easter outside Latvia and preparing for Monday’s race. It currently looks like there will be six drivers in Vītola’s Suzuki Swift class at the start of Leadenhill (there were eight in the first round at Silverstone), all six of whom also took part in the first race of the season. Interestingly, Patrick O’Donovan, who was one of the main favorites in the season-opening round, is not on the list.
At Silverstone, Roberts was in the clear lead from the start of the race day, along with O’Donovan and Luke Constantine. All three seemed to be on equal footing, which was best illustrated by the results at the final finish – there was only 0.6 seconds between the trio of Constantine – O’Donovan – Vītols.
Although Vītols was a little disappointed after the first race with a third place in a race where victory was so close, the team coolly perceived this stage as a great experience and a special learning day in Roberts’ career. Later, conclusions were also drawn about possible improvements in both driving and car and tire pressure regulation. It should be noted that Lidenhill is on the track where Vītols already competed last fall, so the venue for the battles will not be as unfamiliar and newly discovered as Silverstone.
The team reports that Robert’s car has been restored both technically and visually after the first stage. The visual work was enough, because the pilot had given his all in the fight – there were enough scratches and dents!
Autocross.lv, in collaboration with Provento Racing, plans to follow the events in Great Britain on Monday.
