Having celebrated his breakthrough Euro RX1 triumph
at Höljes 12 months earlier, O’Donovan returned to the popular Värmland circuit
with his sights firmly set on a repeat performance – and that is exactly what the
rising British star delivered.
Behind the wheel of his Peugeot 208, he kept
fellow title hopeful Sivert Svardal at bay in the opening heat until the Norwegian
dropped out of contention, before adding another race win to his tally in heat
two after narrowly avoiding Ulrik Linnemann’s spectacular Turn One roll.
The 20-year-old then led a Team RX Racing one-two
in heat three as he was followed home by his father, Ollie O’Donovan, but a sluggish
getaway in the wet in heat four on Sunday morning left him back in the pack,
and he had to draw upon all of his bravery and skill to pull off a crowd-pleasing
last lap pass on Mikko Ikonen to finish second – in so doing, securing himself
top spot in the intermediate ranking and pole position for the first
semi-final.
When it rains at Höljes, however, pole is
rarely the best place to start due to the limited grip on the front row of the
grid. Having slipped to fifth when the lights went out, O’Donovan elected to
dive straight into the joker, and that strategy – allied to a scintillating
turn-of-speed – enabled him to fight his way back to second behind race-winner Mika
Liimatainen in his Hyundai.
That earned the two-time British Rallycross
Champion third on the grid for the all-important final – arguably the prime
starting slot – and after getting blamelessly caught up in a clash with Yury
Belevskiy and Peter Hedström in the first corner, he emerged from Turn Two in
the lead.
When his pursuers then tripped over each other
entering the Velodrome section later around the lap, O’Donovan was gifted a significant
advantage – and he duly went on to take the chequered flag more than four
seconds clear to launch his title bid in commanding fashion.
“I had awful starts all day on Sunday but got a
great start in the final,” he reflected. “I was alongside Hedström and I tried
to give as much room as I possibly could to Belevskiy on the inside, but Hedström
just went into the side of me and I was a passenger at that point.
“After that, I got my head down and it was all
about managing the pace and not making any mistakes. The fans at Höljes are
amazing and it’s an incredible place to be – it really is the ‘Magic Weekend’
and I love it. Everyone in the team properly pulled together, so a big ‘thank
you’ to them all. To come back to Höljes and make it two-for-two is a fantastic
result.”
Surprise package Liimatainen wound up second
overall for Betomik Racing ahead of reigning Euro RX3 champion Damian
Litwinowicz, who impressed on his Euro RX1 debut with Volland Racing.
The season will continue with round two at Nyirád
in Hungary on 27-28 July.
Second image (Linnemann roll): Mads Egeberg-Gjelstrup
Europe
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