First win for Doran
Liam Doran (Sittingbourne) became the first British driver to win an event in the European Rallycross Championship for almost two decades when he claimed his first victory in the series in Finland on Sunday.

Doran (23) took his win in a dramatic A final to the Finnish event which took place at Kouvola, 100 miles north east of Helsinki. Fighting back from engine problems in the first day of the event, and being pushed off the track by another competitor in his second qualifying heat, Doran qualified fourth for the A final and ran third in the first lap, behind his team mate Kenneth Hansen who led the race and current champion Sverre Isachsen.

A clash between Isachsen and Hansen led to the latter's Citroën C4 suffering a puncture that forced Hansen to reduce his pace. Isachsen then took the lead with Doran chasing and catching with each lap. In the last lap of the race Isachsen's Ford Focus faltered after landing heavily on a small jump at the end of the lap and Doran snatched his opportunity, passing the race leader to take his first win.

"I knew I could give up so I just kept going as fast as I could without letting the car slide around too much. I could see that I was catching Isachsen each lap and I was just close enough at the end to get the win," said Doran, "The team has worked really hard to get more speed from the car over the last few events and now we are in a position to win events and I want to win some more!"


Doran jr (right) battled hard with Isachsen, Hansen, Jernberg, Walfridsson and Hunsbedt
before taking the 'A' final victory

The championship now takes a short break before the last four events in August and September get under way with the Belgian round.

FIA European Rallycross Championship, round 6/10, Kouvola, Finland, July 9-11

Results (A finals, all five laps, no race times published)
Division One 1 Liam Doran (Citroën C4 ERC); 2 Ludvig Hunsbedt (Ford Focus ST ERC); 3 Stig-Olov Walfridson (Renault Clio III ERC); 4 Kenneth Hansen (Citroën C4 ERC); 5 Sverre Isachsen (Ford Focus ST ERC); 6 Michael Jernberg (Skoda Fabia II ERC).
Championship 1 Isachsen 89; 2 Jernberg 80; 3 Hansen 77; 4 Doran 73; 5 Walfridson 60; 6 Hunsbedt 45.
Next event, Belgium, August 6-8

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