The second round of the British Rallycross Championship concluded in Leadenhill on Saturday, with Latvian driver Roberts Vītols taking third place in the Super 1600 class. However, the battle was not as straightforward as it might seem.
In the final, Roberts finished third, 5.9 seconds behind the leader after six laps. The top positions were taken by two drivers from Europe’s leading Super 1600 class team Volland Racing, but in a somewhat unexpected order – the European “almost champion” Yuri Belevski was defeated by Belgian debutant Kobe Pauwels, beating the Russian by 1.2 seconds.
Vītols also had his chance for a surprise – in the first qualifying session, it was Roberts who was the fastest, leaving all his competitors behind. The success was due to the unique track conditions, which allowed him to play around with the choice of tires. After the success of the first run, Roberts explained:
“In the first race, Darren Scott and I started with dry tires, but both Volland Audis were on wet tires. I managed to get a good start, but I really skidded in the first corner, I had to work hard to get back on track – my hands were full! Overall, the track was good for the tires, but in two corners we lost terribly to the Audi cars, it was sliding like on ice. As a result, Belevskis caught me at the end of the race. A couple of corners before the end of the race, he tried to jump past me, but I successfully covered the attack and finished first.”
Further on, on a drying track, the Audi drivers became faster and faster. In the class (Super 1600 was racing together with the Supernational drivers), Belevskis won the second race, Pauwels was second, and Vītols was fourth, losing to Scott. In the third race, Pauwels gave a hint with his victory that he was ready to fight for victory as well. Belevskis was second in class, Vītols was third, and Scott was right behind him.
Lidenhill’s first day results in the Super 1600 class
Final
- Kobe Pauwels 4:46.889
- Yuri Belevskiy 4:48.070
- Roberts Vīltols 4:52.771
- Darren Scott 4:54.977
The third round of the British Championship will be held on Sunday. The Supercar class final race will take place tonight, and we are also waiting for more comments from Provento Racing about the day.
