Oliver Webb arrived at Lydden Hill having never competed in rallycross before. Nevertheless, the British driver ended up being one of the surprises of the weekend.
A world away from the Le Mans prototypes and single seaters he’s raced for much of his career, Webb first drove TitansRX’s Pantera RX6 racing car during free practice on Saturday, and had very little time to adjust to the nuances of rallycross.
„It’s been amazing,“ Webb said of his first rallycross outing. „It’s been a whole new experience obviously, everything’s so different to what I’m used to from a downforce car with paddles to a handbrake, stick-shift, soft suspension and gravel.“
Almost immediately the sports car racer was on the pace of many more seasoned competitors, qualifying for the final in round three on Saturday, and following that up with a maiden heat win in round four on Sunday.
„It was a little bit of a surprise [to be on the pace right away], but the car’s really nice to get used to, the guys here at TitansRX are really friendly with showing me how everything works,“ he said. „The Hansen brothers were talking me through everything and I guess the feel was just there. I was really happy to be fourth on Saturday, unfortunately we went into limp mode on Sunday but I think we would’ve been in contention for a podium in the final as well.“
One aspect of TitansRX that differs massively from what Webb is used to is the freedom to make contact with other cars on track. Webb took time to get used to it, but ended up with a penalty for contact as the weekend went on, something he joked that he was quite pleased with given the clean driving style he usually adopts.
„It took me a while to get used to the contact but then I started giving some back and I even got a penalty for some contact so I’ll take that as a positive,“ he quipped.
With his first two rounds in the books, Webb is now looking to expand his TitansRX calendar from his wildcard appearance at Lydden Hill, to potentially competing in more rounds later this year.
„I hope so,“ he said when asked about the possibility of returning. „I hope I can take the experience from this weekend and it would be nice to come back and do a couple so hopefully if I can clear the diary, I’d love to.“
„Everything’s so different but it’s great to be able to learn a new trade and hopefully I’ll be able to do more.“
