RX Racing are very pleased to announce that the inaugural RX150 Championship has been a great success.  The season has shown that there are many drivers within the Championship that are capable of scoring points and getting podium finishes, and all that have watched the racing have been very impressed with the professionalism and very high standard of driving ability.

The season started with a double header Sprint event at Lydden Hill hosted by London Irish Motor Club, it was an ideal opening event as it allowed competitors to spend valuable time in their new RX150’s without the concern of having other vehicles on track at the same time.  Ollie O’Donovan set the pace on Day 1 with the fastest time, closely followed by Andy Scott and son Marc, who also won the prize for furthest distance travelled as they are based in Dumfries!

Day 2 saw some new talent come shining through in the form of 19 year old Tommy Keet, who set the fastest time of the day on his last run, Tom put the win down to his Team Manager (Dad) Guy Hodgkin making some last minute adjustments to ballast positioning and getting the tyre pressures spot on in the new set of tyres.  Andy Scott showed consistency and put in some strong times to end up in second place, with Ollie O’Donovan a little surprised at the strength of the competition ending up in third.  Lydden Hill proved to be a great place for the new Championship to get started, with an excellent opportunity for all new competitors to get to know one another after the racing had finished and sample Ollie’s catering skills as he spent the whole evening behind the BBQ cooking for anyone who was brave enough!

The third round of the Championship was again down in sunny Kent at Lydden Hill, where we were part of the MSA British Rallycross event.  There was great anticipation as this was the first event that the drivers would be competing head to head on track.  We were very fortunate to have guest driver Kris Meeke join us, who was sponsored for the event by clothing manufacturer Engel – keen to get exposure for their new brand Workzone.  Kris has had experience of these vehicles before and jumped at the opportunity to compete against British Rallycross Champion Ollie O’Donovan.

After a slightly shaky start to the first heat, which saw three drivers jump the start, the standard of driving was very good with very even and fast racing taking place.  There was an excellent turn out from the general public and great interest in this new exciting racing, many spectators were amazed at the pace of the RX150’s and how controllable the vehicles were on both the tarmac and shale.

The B Final was very exciting to watch, with Marc Scott desperate to make it into the A Final, unfortunately Marc had a spin early on but managed to claw his way back through the pack all the way to first position which would confirm him a place in the A Final, all he needed to do was bring it home but a little over exuberance saw him spin out on the final corner and his hopes were smothered in a cloud of dust.

The A Final had the top 8 fastest drivers of the day taking part in a 5 lap race, Kris Meeke got a perfect getaway from the lights and led from start.  Ollie O’Donovan was in a strong second place and gave it his all to catch Meeke, but ended up having to defend rather than attack as new boy Steve Mantle was all over the back of him.  The final positions ended up with Kris giving the perfect drive with Ollie second and Steve third, there were some red faces after the chequered flag however, when a number of the drivers did an extra lap after not seeing the final flag!

Moving on to Pembrey where we had a new addition to the list of drivers, Leo Forster and his bright yellow RX150 were set to really shine, considering Leo had never even sat in his RX150 before the race day he put in an excellent performance to take him to eventual second place overall.  Welsh Tarmac Champion Damian Cole also joined the driver line up as a guest but struggled to get a setup to suit his style, he found himself battling for position in a strong midfield of regular drivers.  Andy Scott drove very well all day and left Pembrey with the winner’s trophy, and Craig Bracewell was happy with third place.

We had some interesting moments during the day with Jason O'Donovan managing to make contact and spin a cautious Joe Shrimpton and then proceed to drive over the side of Joe’s RX150 damaging the air scoop, and Marc Scott had a CV joint fail on the grid ending a difficult day for him.  Chris Smith was pleased with a fourth overall and Tom Keet finished fifth, Damian Cole had a trying day which left him sixth position.

Onto the final two rounds of the 2008 Championship and we headed up the A1 to a very cold Croft Circuit for the Open Rallycross Championship Super Prix.  Coming into this weekend there were only two RX Championship title contenders; Ollie O'Donovan and Andy Scott, with both drivers not prepared to give an inch on the track we were in for some real close racing!  We also welcomed two guest drivers to take part in the racing on both Saturday and Sunday, on Saturday Jess Gwynne competed against her Grandfather Bill Gwynne.  Jess drove very well and narrowly missed a place in the A Final, highly commendable considering this was her first race day in an RX150.  Bill soon got to grips with the lightweight RX150 and ended up midfield in the A Final.  On the Sunday we were very pleased to have two of British Rallyings top drivers; Kris Meeke and Ryan Champion, it was Ryan's first outing in an RX150 but incredibly he set the fastest lap time in the first heat.  The racing was fast and close all day and culminated in a fantastic A Final, Kris took the lead immediately with Ollie and Ryan in hot pursuit with very little between the three drivers, the battle for fourth and fifth was even closer with Leo Forster chasing down Andy Scott.  Leo managed a cracking overtaking manoeuvre where he outbraked Andy into the first corner of the penultimate lap, Leo almost managed to snatch third place from Ryan but had to settle for fourth when he couldn't find a way through. 

Although the guest drivers put on a thrilling performance and enjoyed the champagne on the podium, they do not receive points towards the Championship.  So it was Ollie O'Donovan who had an outstanding weekend gaining 22points out of a possible 24 for the two events with Leo Forster pulling in 18 points from two second places and a 2 point bonus for fastest lap on Sunday.  Andy Scott admitted he was trying too hard on the Saturday and didn't really drive to his potential with a couple of spins spoiling his day, once he had accepted the Championship had got away from him he relaxed and was far quicker on the Sunday giving us some thrilling action.

The Croft Super Prix was a great success, and we all look forward to being involved with the Open Championship next year, the results for the weekends racing were as follows.

That leaves only the overall Championship results to be shown, each rounds points can be clearly seen in the table below.

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Championship winner Ollie O’Donovan should be credited with some excellent driving throughout the season, he won four out of the five events he entered and also set the fastest race lap at three events.

Andy Scott finished a commendable second place overall with one win, fastest race lap, two second places and a third place being his best results.

Tommy Keet showed maturity for his nineteen years and managed some consistently good results to finish third in the championship.

RX Racing would sincerely like to thank all competitors and sponsors for their support and understanding during our first season, it has been a very enjoyable experience that has brought people from all over the UK together to share a common passion.  We hope the closeness within the team that we have created stays as close as the racing on track and look forward to the Winter series at Lydden kicking off on the 29^th November.

Particular thanks go to our two main sponsors for the season, Engel Clothing who have sponsored us all season with their WORKZONE brand and supplied us with Team clothing and also Yokohama Motorsport Tyres who have supported us throughout.  We hope the relationship can continue into the coming seasons.

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