The Team RX Racing owner and legendary Irish rallycross driver Ollie O´Donovan has announced yesterday (Wednesday) that he has withdrawed from the third round of the 2022 FIA European Rallycross Championship in Hell, Norway this weekend.
Reasoning behind this is because of the new Proton Iriz RX Supercar (RX1) that he is using for the 2022 campaign is not fixed due to some technical issues that his son Patrick O´Donovan faced throughout the Nitro Rallycross weekend in Strängnäs, Sweden two weekends back.
Ollie says he wants the car to be fully prepared and functionally for the season remainder in a statement posted by the team on social medias, it is not likely the issues will be adressed for the following Euro RX round in Riga, Latvia neither, but Ollie hopes to be back for the two remaining rounds in Montelegre, Portugal and in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.
Credit: Team RX Racing
The statement reads; “We have taken the decision as a team to withdraw from the third round of the European Rallycross Championship at Hell in Norway this weekend. I’m really disappointed as it’s a circuit I love and it’s been a few years since I last raced there. While we are getting on top of the issues Patrick faced when he drove the Iriz RX in Sweden recently, we want to make sure we are totally prepared next time we race in Euro RX. I think it’s unlikely that we will be in Riga either, but we are working hard for return for the final two rounds of the season in Portugal and Belgium, I loved racing at those venues last season in World RX, and of course have the British Championship events to focus on too.”
The Iriz Supercar is a new build for this season, Ollie has used a Ford Fiesta for the past season but he has handed the keys over to his son Patrick to use it in the 5 Nations British Rallycross Championship for this season and the team also owns an older spec Ford Focus, so it is most likely that Ollie will be using that car while the Iriz´s problems gets sorted.
However the O´Donovan family will still be presented at this weekend in Norway as Patrick will be racing in the single-make all-electric FIA RX2e Championship support class.