Oliver Bennett positive despite fiery end to home World RX appearance

Oliver Bennett remained pleased with his performance at World Rallycross of Great Britain, despite his event coming to a premature and fiery end in the semi-finals.

It was the first time the Brit had ever reached that stage of a race weekend in Word RX, and he was even showing the pace to advance to the final as well until a oil pipe problem caused his Mini to burst into flames.

“Obviously the pace picks up in the semi-finals so I had a really big push in the second lap and I went a bit too far on the jump, had a hard landing, and that pulled the oil pipe off and that caused a little fire in the car,” Bennett said of the incident, which was reminiscent of his fire in the British Rallycross championship at the same venue last year.

“It was slightly different to the Fiesta (in British RX), that had bodywork rubbing which caught fire on the exhaust whereas this was just an unfortunate thing, the oil pipe fell off on the jump. We didn’t go as far on the jump as in any of the qualifiers.”

Despite the dramatic look of the fire, Bennett said the issue wasn’t a major one and the problem has already been rectified.

“It’s an easy fix, the fire’s been put out, a new pipe has been put on and off we go,” he said. “It’s just something to be mindful of when we come back to Silverstone.”

Bennett has shown a marked improvement this season, culminating in the maiden semi-final appearance at Silverstone, and he thinks it could be a sign of things to come from him and the Xite Racing Mini going forward.

“I think the pace was there this weekend, it’s shame we couldn’t see where we ended up really, but it happens. It was a great weekend overall,” he said. “I’m really positive and this wasn’t really my favourite track if I’m honest, so I’m looking forward to the Swedish track, because I go really well there.”