Miixed event for Mullen at Lydden Hill
The first round of the British Rally Cross Championship was an interesting event for Chris Mullen and the team, having left Leeds at 10.00am on Friday morning and arriving at Lydden Hill at 17:30pm later that evening. The newly sponsored swift with Power Maxed, TAAG and B&C Car Parts was however looking pristine on its arrival to the circuit and ready for the weekend’s action.
Saturday saw an early start and the team were up and ready for a practise session on the morning that saw Chris handle the car beautifully. With no testing over the winter months, the speed and the way the car ran round the track was phenomenal, giving the team high hopes for the weekends racing in the Swift Sport Chamionship.
Heat 1 saw Chris finish 2nd. An exciting race which Chris led right up to the last half of the last lap where he unfortunately sustained a puncture to the driver’s side tyre. Still happy with a 2nd place result, the team brought the car back to the paddock and prepared it for the next race. Power Maxed, a new 2014 sponsor that came on board over winter, have been supplying Chris and the team with cleaning products for the car meaning the team had no excuse for the car to be looking spotless for the second heat.
With a fantastic start in Heat 2, a strong competitive battle ensued with Tristan Ovenden with the aim to finish 1st but in avoiding contact, saw Chris unfortunately spin out on Chessons resulting in a 4th place finish. Absolutely gutted Chris headed back to the Lydden paddock.
Sunday saw the sun out, and in Heat 3 took a superb victory, one that with his other results saw him line up third on the gird for the final in the B&C Car Parts Suzuki, and look forward to a battle with Tristan Ovenden and Graham Rodemark.
Taking his “joker” on the first lap Chris made a good start, but it quickly became evident to the team that Chris had issues with the car, as he dropped back down the field very quickly, but continued to race in the final. He finished 8th but was disappointed that the gear selector had broken, leaving the selection of gears very difficult.
Nonetheless, Chris was positive and said at the finish ‘Not what we wanted for the first round, gutted with where I finished but things happen. Holland is only 2 weeks away now so looks like we have a lot of work to do but it is nice to be back out and competing in Rallycross again.’
