Derek took victory in his first drive of the RX150’s and hopes to do more events in the future in these spectacular Motorcycle engined Buggies.

For this event Tohill had to leave his European spec Ford Fiesta MK.7 at home due to some technical problems after the final race of the European Rallycross Championship in Czech Republic.  The Irishman did a deal at the very last moment to drive Andy Scotts RX150 Rage Buggy.  These lightweight Buggies are rear wheel drive and come with a 954cc Honda Fireblade engine with a sequential short shift gearbox.

Derek felt comfortable in the motorcycle engined buggy straight away

The Irishman traveled throught the night to get to Croft and on Saturday morning he jumped in and made himself aware of his new office for the day.  It was a wet first run and not knowing how the wipers worked wasn’t ideal!  In any case the Irishman pushed on and kept the Buggy on the island, just!

The 2 qualification heats then began and the Irishman had some close battles with newly crowned2011  British RX 150 Champion Ollie O’Donovan.   Derek & Ollie took a win a piece in slippery conditions, the Final would see the pair start on the front row alongside each other.

Derek & Ollie O'Donovan getting to know each other! Photo Courtesy of Leigh Hickey

As the lights turned green, Ollie had the motorbike engined clutches mastered  and got a clean get away off the line.  Derek wasn’t far behind and the pair swaped positions furiously for the first few laps.  Ollie wasn’t going to make things easy but Derek knew Ollie was a hard nut and the pair fought hard & close on a few occasions.   On lap 3 Derek wrestled the lead again from Ollie and managed to make  a small gap, he drove hard over the final 2 laps and eventually took the chequered flag in 1st position.  This was Derek’s first experience of the RX150 buggy and the 2010 European Rallycross Champion thouroughly enjoyed the close competition.

Derek drove Andy Scotts RX150 to an A Final victory at Croft

After the final round of the British Championship the end of season Rallycross Grand Prix took place.  Derek took the Heat 1 win and the other 2 Heats were won by Ollie.  The front of the A final was made up of Ollie, Derek & 2010 RX150 Champion Leo Forster.  As the A final started there was close contact between Ollie & Leo, this meant Derek had to move off his normal racing line which allowed Kevin Feeney to make a strong move up the inide of  the Teng Tools backed Irishman.  Tohill reacted to Feeneys move and made contact with Forster.  Tohill, Feeney & Forster all lost time together and the rest of the field escaped.  Derek fought back and managed to climb back up to 3rd overall.  Ollie taking the win this time ahead of Jake Harris & Tohill.

Steer from the rear...

So two podium finishes which included an overall victory and third place is how the Irishmans weekend ended in an eventful RX150 debut!   The Irishman commented; “It was a fantastic opportuinity to sample these fast and furious machines, I expected them to be difficult to drive and thought it would be all about lap times.  It was a bit of a pleasant surprise to see the racing was hard & aggresive, this is just the kind of environment I’m used to competing in and i’d love to give it a go again.  The RX Racing Team headed by Ollie O’Donovan & Willie Woods is a professionally run outfit with good support and a friendly atmosphere.  It’s an ideal machine to keep me on my toes throughout the Winter, watch this space…

Derek enjoyed the slippery conditions in the high reving RWD buggy

The victory at Croft driving the RX150 Rage Buggy was tohill’s third win in the MSA British Rallycross Championship in 2011.  The Tractive Transmisions supported driver won the opening round of the British Championship at Lydden Hill, Kent in the Supernational category driving his Ford Fiesta MK.7.  Tohill then turned to driving his newly built Peugeot 106 in the Hot Hatch category for round 3 at Mondello Park.  Again the Irishman took victory in the ultra competitive class where the Irishman started his career in Rallycross.   This meant Tohill won every round of the MSA British Championship he entered in 2011 but in 3 different classes!!!  A nice triple victory ending to a tough season which also resulted in 3rd overall in the FIA European Rallycross Championship in TouringCars.

Derek drove his Fiesta to victory at Rd.1 of the 2011 British Championship

The final round of the 2011 European Rallycross Championship (ERC) took place at Ceska Lipa which is about one hour away from Prague in the Czech Republic.  Derek Tohill (Dublin, Ireland) had a battle on his hands for the weekend to make sure the Teng Tools backed driver finished in the top 3 of the Championship in the Irishmans second year driving in the TouringCar category of the ERC.

The Rallycross Rebels team knew the job that had to be done; beat Belgian driver Koen Pauwels and a podium position in the Championship was guaranteed.  Derek started well with this task as the Irishman posted the second fastest time in qualifying while fellow Fiesta MK.7 driver Pauwels only managed seventh place.   But, the day came to a halt at that point as race officials decided it was too dusty to continue racing.  This was disapointing for both fans and competitors but safety for all must come first.

Derek leading Belgian legend Jos Sterkens in his Volvo C30

The postponed action on Saturday meant that a very full race day was in order for Sunday with a 7.00am. start.  The Ralycross Rebels team were well prepared and raring to go, Tohill the Millers Oils driver manged to set fastest time in free practice this was followed by a 2nd place in Heat 2 and a 4th fastest time in a scrappy third heat where Derek had to battle through from the back of the field after a dubious start that looked very much like an obvious jump start by many other competitors.

Start of the TouringCar A Final in Czech was frantic as usual

Derek’s fast and consistent results in the three heats gave the Irishman a front row start for the A Final alongside Champion elect Lars Enerberg (Fiesta ST RWD) from Norway.  Tohill’s main championship rival Koen Pauwels from Belgium would start on the second row alongside local favourite Roman Castoral (Astra OPC RWD). 

As the lights turned green for the A Final, Tohill got a good start but was attacked from behind by both Pauwels and Castoral but the Irishman was determined not to get involved and he made a break and followed Enerberg.  The Irishman held onto second place for the most of the race until he took his joker lap and local man Castoral just managed to pass the Irishman.  But third place was more than enough for Tohill to secure his second top 3 in the European Championship in 2 years.  This is another record for Irish drivers in the ERC and Tohill managed to help Ireland to 10th place in the Nations Cup ahead of countries such as the  USA and Germany who were eleventh and twelfth respectably.  Unsurprisingly the Scandinavians in Norway and Sweden finished 1st & 2nd overall.

Derek's battle scared Fiesta MK.7

Tohill commented:

“This was a really tough year after having won the Championship outright last season.  But, myself and the team learnt a lot this season and a Bronze medal finish is probably what we deserved.  A 1st and 3rd in two years is something that we should be proud of, we will learn from this year and carry on fighting to reclaim the European title.   The Championship now has a new deserving Champion in Lars Enerberg from Norway and I would like to congratulate him and his team.  We will take some time now to recharge our batteries and our plans for 2012 will be released in good time.  I would like to thank my sponsors, technical partners, team, family and supporters for all their hard work and commitment in both the good and bad times.”

Norwegian Lars Enerberg was the man to beat in 2011

Derek is supported by Tractive Transmissions AB, Millers Oils, Teng Tools, PartsforCars, Rathgar Motor Factors, Southside Motor Factors, Dublin Hampers, Platinum Batteries and Ring Automotive.

TouringCars

Final standings:
1. Lars Øivind Enerberg (N) 149
2. Roman Častoral (CZ) 131
3. Derek Tohill (IRL) 116

For further information and more pictures please contact: info@rmf.ie

Pictures are Copyright Free, courtesy of www.rallycrossworld.com & Johnny Loix

This was the final round of the 2011 European Championship, Derek had to beat Koen Pauwels from Belgium to ensure a Bronze Medal in the final championship standings.  Derek & the team manged to qualify for the front row of the A Final and carry out the job required by finishing on the podium for the fifth time this season.  Pauwels finished fifth overall, this result ensured third overall in the final standings and a ticket for Derek to the official FIA prizegiving.

Derek Tohill gets his bronze medal ERC CZ 2011 from RALLYCROSS.HU © Mark Szerenyi on Vimeo.

Derek Tohill Poland 2011 from RALLYCROSS.HU © Mark Szerenyi on Vimeo.

Derek qualified direct to the A Final on the second row and finished 4th overall after a spin, Derek & the team are in a close battle for 3rd place in the 2011 Championship with 1 race remaining in Czech Republic.

Derek Tohill ERC Austria 2011 from RALLYCROSS.HU © Mark Szerenyi on Vimeo.