Pembrey pain for Lomax

31st July 2014

Having dominated the first three rounds of this years MSA British Rallycross Championship in association with the Shannon Group, last weekends event at Pembrey proved to be a different matter altogether for Yorkshires Craig Lomax and the Baxi Avanti Team Extreme Rallycross team.

A spin in practice was not the best of starts, in the dusty conditions, but the team were buoyed by victories in Heats One and Two, to leave Lomax very well placed for the remainder of the event. Heat Three saw a great battle with Tomasz Marciniak, though a first corner incident meant that Lomax was playing catch up for the rest of the heat, though did record a good second place. Lomax added at the end of the heat “I am really enjoying driving the car, I don’t think I’ve ever gone through Honda as fast as I have just now, and the engine is just so strong.”

Heading into the Final Lomax and the Baxi Avanti Team Extreme Rallycross team were feeling very confident, but a poor start left the Yorkshireman a lot of work to do. Lap two saw Lomax pass Jeff Hope-Davis for the lead and he began to pull out a lead. Sadly on Lap four, the car developed gearbox and clutch issues, which slowed the pace of the Citroën and Lomax dropped back down the order and with it, the chance of four victories out of four.

The failure was disappointing for the team, as hopes had been high following a mid season refurb on the car but Lomax was realistic after the final and said “The boys have worked hard on the car recently and our hopes were high for this weekend, but that’s Rallycross, and it means the battle for us is still on, and it is one myself and the team are really enjoying. We already have a new clutch sorted from our partner Questmead and that means with their support we will be ready for some more fun at Lydden at the next round.”

Lomax still leads the Championship, by 24 points, meaning even if he has a bad round at Lydden hill in August, he will still be leading the Championship going into the final round at Croft Circuit Darlington, in October.