HOLSWORTHY’s MSA British Rallycross Championship leader, Dan Rooke, extended his margin at the head of the standings by claiming his third victory of the season at Lydden Hill, the venue for the traditional August Bank Holiday Monday British RX event.

The 19-year-old headed to the sixth-round of the British Rallycross Championship having dominated the previous round at Maasmechen in Belgium a month earlier, but was immediately forced to pull out all the stops at Lydden Hill as his Citroen DS3 Supercar suffered a front right puncture in the opening qualifying race of the day.

Fighting back with second fastest time in qualifier two, the young driver then came out on top of a battle with five-time British Rallycross Champion Julian Godfrey (Ford Fiesta) in qualifier three to set the fastest time.

Starting on pole position for the second semi-final, Rooke led the knockout race throughout to secure pole position for the final.

After fending off the early attentions of Godfrey and then Dave Bellerby (Ford Fiesta), Rooke stormed to his second straight win by just under five seconds, extending his lead in the championship to 24 points with two rounds to go, at Pembrey and Croft in September and October respectively.

Looking back on an eventful few hours, Dan said: “It wasn’t an easy day. The puncture in the first race dampened my spirits I must admit. I was down on Julian in the second qualifier, but the third race was really good and I managed to just pip Julian to be quickest. In the semi-final I was able to set the fastest time, I had a clear run and then everything went perfectly from there so it’s all good.

“My guys were great on the radio in the final, telling me how close people were in the first corner and they got the joker lap perfect so we came back into the lead and we had a clear track from there.

“This is really good for my championship bid. I still want to win events but we need to really start thinking about the points and how we approach the last two rounds.”

The result also ensured that Rooke maintained his 100% win record at the Lydden Hill circuit in British RX events. Competing in only his second season of rallycross this year, Rooke won twice at the Kent venue in the Supernational category in 2015 and scored his first Supercar victory in March, before claiming the sixth round on Monday, August 29.