British RX podium finisher Oliver Bennett is set to race in his home round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in three weeks’ time at Lydden Hill, the venue where he scored his first rallycross podium at round two of the Toyo Tires MSA British Rallycross Championship last month.

Bennett has switched to rallycross from rallying for 2017 and is campaigning an OlsbergsMSE-built Ford Fiesta Supercar in British RX. Fourth in round one at Croft Circuit, he finished on the podium in only his second event and will now take on motorsport legends such as Petter Solberg, Sebastien Loeb and Mattias Ekstrom in the World RX round. “I know Lydden quite well now, it was the first place I drove a Supercar and we got a good result there in the last round of the British Championship, so I’m really looking forward to the World event,” said Bennett. “We’re throwing ourselves in at the deep end, but I don’t think we’re going to make ourselves look silly. We’re a bit behind the World guys on lap time, but we know where there is time to find from the car and I can get more out of myself too.”

Bennett is currently joint second in the British RX points, behind leader Ollie O’Donovan, who will also compete at the British round of World RX at Lydden. “I’ve only got about a year’s experience of driving, I did about six rallies in my Group N Subaru that I bought and ran myself, so we’ve had to learn quickly,” continued Bennett. “We were considering this year as a learning experience, but we’ve coming on more than where we expected, so we thought we’d give the World round a go. I’ve driven at Lydden enough that now I’m hunting for time rather than getting used to the track, so now we’re in a position where we can really improve on our last performance there.”

The Quick Motorsport-run Fiesta will have a new livery for the World RX event, and Bennett will also race the car in the BTRDA Clubmans event at Pembrey this weekend to get more seat time.

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