Derek Tohill - 2016 FIA European Rallycross Championship

Posted: September 20, 2016 8:38 AM - 6116 Hits

PFCRX robbed of semi-final start in Barcelona

Posted: September 20, 2016 6:32 AM

Double European Rallycross Champion Derek Tohill and the PFCRX team were robbed of a semi-final start in the fourth round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship at Barcelona in Spain (September 18) after being pushed into a wall in Q4 by another competitor, ending the weekend and causing significant damage to the Ford Fiesta RX.

13th fastest in Q1 on Saturday, Tohill and the team changed the setup of the car ahead of Q2 and were able to set eighth fastest time with the OlsbergsMSE-built Supercar, putting them ninth overall and inside the top 12 at the end of day one, within the qualifying positions for the semi-finals.

However, heavy contact heading into the first corner in Q3 damaged the Fiesta’s steering and suspension, meaning Tohill had to work hard to make it to the finish of the race. Sitting on the edge of the semi-final positions, Tohill just needed a solid time from his Q4 race but was pushed into the wall on the outside of the first corner by another competitor after a good start, where the weekend ended.

A lot of damage was sustained to the Fiesta, but the PFCRX team immediately began work to assess the damage and ensure that Tohill can complete the season, in his return to full-time international rallycross competition.

The Irish team now turn its attention to the final round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship at the Bikernieki Circuit on the outskirts of Latvia’s capital city Riga, where Tohill tested earlier this season in preparation for the event on the brand-new circuit.

Derek Tohill | Driver | Ford Fiesta #111

“This was two separate events for us really. Saturday was great progress for the whole team. Things went really well and we found a good setup in time for Q2. We were inside the semi-final positions, so we were looking forward to pushing forward on Sunday.

It went wrong in Q3. We got squeezed into the first corner. We were the meat in the sandwich and got launched up in the air. It damaged the steering and we just hung on to get to the finish of the race. We ended up 13th and we knew a good clean last run in Q4 would probably get us into the semi-finals.

I got a good start, minding my own business on the outside of the first corner but Michael De Keersmaeker just drove me clean off the road. He pushed me off, hard in the drivers’ door for many meters into the tyre wall, and that’s where our event ended. It’s an extremely disappointing to end to what looked like it was going to be a very promising event. The team worked hard all weekend and to have no reward is very, very tough.

We’ve done a test in Latvia already so we’ll go there confident once we’ve repaired the Fiesta. The lap times at the test were extremely good. I have lots of faith in the boys. There is a lot of work to do but we will be there and I feel we are well prepared.

Dramatic weekend for PFCRX at Holjes

Posted: July 5, 2016 5:24 AM

Irish rallycross driver Derek Tohill scored his best result of the 2016 season to-date with a strong performance at the third round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Holjes in Sweden (July 3), in front of 45,000 people.

In a weekend of mixed weather conditions that started dry for open practice on Friday evening and turned to torrential rain on Saturday, changeable conditions greeted the team on Sunday, as two-time European Rallycross TouringCar Champion Tohill and the team continued their learning and development of the OlsbergsMSE built Ford Fiesta Supercar.

Ninth fastest in Q1, Tohill was 17th in Q2 after picking up a puncture. Sunday morning started well for the squad with third fastest lap time in warm-up, before the Irish team were both unlucky and lucky to set ninth fastest time in Q3 as Tohill was t-boned by another car having it’s own incident at the joker lap exit, causing significant damage to the Fiesta and Tohill to spin the car. The strong Fiesta was able to finish the race, despite the delay. 12th quickest time in Q4 was enough to secure a place in the semi-finals, where Tohill made a good start but was slowed from the first lap by a broken driveshaft.

Limping the car home, Tohill was able to finish fifth in the semi-final and 12th overall at the event regarded by many as the ‘Magic Weekend’. To Tohill and the team, the venue is also the ‘Holy Grail’ of the sport, where they have previously claimed victory in the TouringCar division.

PFCRX will now travel to Latvia to test at the Bikernieki Circuit in preparation for the second half of the season, and the championship’s first visit to the new venue in October.

Derek Tohill | Driver | Ford Fiesta #111
“The car was working really well this weekend. Everything was working against us though, we had two punctures, a spin, a broken driveshaft and we still got our best result of the year, so if things had been working in our favour then it could have been really good.

Whenever we had a clear track the times were there, between sixth and third. The team did a great job to keep the car going all weekend. We broke a shaft in the final and carried the car home. This is the best rallycross circuit in the world, without a shadow of a doubt, for atmosphere, culture, driver feedback – even with a puncture or three-wheel drive you can’t not enjoy driving the car here. It still gives you a buzz.

The car worked really well in both the wet and when it dried out a bit. We’ve a lot of pace in the wet, which is really encouraging, so bring on the wet for the rest of the year.

Latvia is a new track in the championship and we haven’t tested yet this year, so we’re going to test there. That can only be good. We’ll test then hopefully make it home to Galway for a round of the Irish Rallycross Championship at the beginning of August, then onto Barcelona and Latvia to finish off the European Championship.”

Weekend of learning for PFCRX in Hell

Posted: June 24, 2016 6:28 PM

Two-time European Rallycross Champion Derek Tohill and the PFCRX rallycross team continued their year of learning in the FIA European Rallycross Championship Supercar category at Hell in Norway this weekend (June 10 – 12).

Competing in the PartsforCars sponsored 600bhp Ford Fiesta Supercar, Irish driver Tohill set progressively faster lap times over the course of the four qualifying races to end the event 17th overall, the position not representative of the performance that both the driver or car proved they were capable of over a single lap in the highly competitive division.

12th fastest in Q3 highlighted that the team had the pace to qualify for the semi-finals at the Lanke circuit, but small driving mistakes on day one were compounded by being stuck in the dust of other cars on day two, where the team set sector times comparable to the top six in the category.

The next round of the Euro RX championship takes place at Holjes, Sweden in three weeks time (July 1 – 2), a circuit at which Tohill and the team have won at before in the TouringCar category.

Derek Tohill | Driver | Ford Fiesta #111

“It was a tough weekend in Hell. We found some good pace from the car, but I made a couple of mistakes in Q2 on the first day. We were very happy with our sector times in Q3 and Q4, but the overall lap time wasn’t great because we got caught in the dust. If we were in clear air, we could have been in the top six based on those times. That was a disappointing end to the event, but we have made progress.

This is extremely high level, things are moving forward all the time. We need to move forward with everyone else. We did a lot of work on the car overnight before Q3 and found some pace. We’re learning and moving forward, infact we learnt more this weekend than we’ve learnt all year.

The car’s in reasonable shape and we’re looking forward to the next event at the ‘mecca of rallycross’ in Sweden. We’ve got the right colour car for Sweden so that can only help. We’re excited by the way things are going and looking forward to making more progress there. It’s an epic event to be part of and I love that track.”

Tohill to miss British World RX round to focus on Euro RX campaign

Posted: May 30, 2016 8:45 AM

Rallycross Supercar racer Derek Tohill has made the difficult decision to withdraw from the fourth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship at Lydden Hill last weekend (May 28 – 29).

Two-time European Rallycross TouringCar Champion Tohill had entered his first World RX event since November 2014 at Lydden Hill, with the intention of getting additional seat time in PFCRX’s new 600bhp Ford Fiesta Supercar, but will instead use the time to prepare for the next round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship in Hell, Norway (June 11 – 12).

The PFCRX squad made its return to international rallycross at the opening round of Euro RX in Belgium earlier this month and qualified for the semi-finals, finishing 12th overall.

The result secures the team an entry to the second round of the series, racing as a non-permanent entry in 2016, the first year in a multi-year programme for the project.

Derek Tohill | Driver | Ford Fiesta #111

“We have a hell of a lot of work to do to the Supercar after Belgium so we’ve decided to concentrate on being as organised as possible before the next Euro RX race in Hell. We’ve not been part of the European Championship for almost three years now and there have been a lot of positive significant changes and developments since we last participated. These changes require some more time to prepare, develop and test our new car.

We need to learn how to get the most out of our new package and the larger team we now have. Personally I also need to be more focused on my driving and trust the team to have everything else in place so I can get the most out of myself and the car. The team is working hard with its partners to continue building on our strengths, we have a great group of people but we know that being competitive in European Rallycross requires a huge amount of hard work and development.

Everything needs to happen naturally and eventually everything becomes second nature, we know this takes time to happen. We need to be patient and build some momentum step-by-step in a methodical manner. Our aim is to try and get some testing in a non-race environment as soon as possible, in the mean time; we look forward to returning to Hell.

It shows the strength of the European Rallycross Championship that non-permanent entries are far from guaranteed this season and the fact we have secured an entry for Norway as the best non-permanent finisher in Belgium is great for PFCRX. Hopefully another strong result in Norway should see us in for the year.

I would like to thank the team, our partners and our supporters for their continued support.”

Strong Euro RX Supercar debut for PFCRX

Posted: May 17, 2016 7:14 AM

Irish rallycross team PFCRX and driver Derek Tohill finished 12th overall from 22 finishers in the opening round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship at Mettet in Belgium (May 15).

The double FIA European Championship winning outfit made its first international start with its 600bhp Ford Fiesta Supercar and set eighth and ninth fastest qualifying times on the first day of competition in Belgium.

A pair of strong times in Q3 and Q4 on day two secured a place in the semi-finals, where Tohill was fighting for a starting position in the final until a broken suspension component during the race ended his final hopes, but still netted 12th overall.

The OlsbergsMSE built car had undergone a number of updates leading up to the event and the PFCRX spent time starting to hone it to Tohill’s style. The team are treating the 2016 season as a development and testing exercise as part of a multi-year programme with the target of winning events and the Euro RX Supercar title.

The Belgian round was a strong start in that process, the pace of Tohill and the car improving throughout the weekend as the team returned to full-time rallycross competition. PFCRX will compete in a range of events this season, the next of which will be the fourth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship in two weeks time, at Lydden Hill in the UK (May 27 – 29).

Derek Tohill | Driver | Ford Fiesta #111

“It’s great to be back in the European Championship. The team did a superb job. Objective number one was to be here and ready, which we achieved. Objective number two, which we knew we would be delighted with was a semi-final, and we achieved too. It’s a very competitive championship and we almost achieved objective number three – to make the final – much earlier than we expected. We’ve work to do, but we have a great starting point here.

We tried to up our pace in the semi-final but I jumped too long on the jump and broke a suspension wishbone, so we dropped from fourth to sixth. This year is to put in the good foundations for year two and three and the likes of Albatec Racing and Hansen are top teams, they’ve been at this a good while now so we know it’s not going to happen overnight for us. Having our own setup and our own little team racing against works-funded programmes like the Peugeots is deadly.

We need to stick at it, as we get to know the car better, life will be easier for us. Hopefully we’ve done enough here to secure a start at the next Euro RX round in Norway. We’re going to Lydden for seat time primarily but we know the track so that’s a good starting point.”

PFCRX launch new livery ahead of Euro RX return in Belgium

Posted: May 17, 2016 7:13 AM

Irish rallycross squad PFCRX will compete in the opening round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship this weekend at Mettet in Belgium [May 13 – 15] with a brand new look to the team.

Double European Rallycross Champion Derek Tohill is returning to international rallycross this weekend in a 600bhp Ford Fiesta Supercar after a sabbatical last season.

The team acquired the OlsbergsMSE-built Fiesta at the end of 2015 and have spent the winter testing at events in Ireland and Sweden, upgrading both the car and infrastructure to return to full-time international rallycross competition this season.

Ahead of a season of events in both the FIA European Rallycross Championship and FIA World Rallycross Championship, the PFCRX team are delighted to launch the brand-new look for not only the eye-catching Fiesta Supercar, but also the team’s transporter, which proudly displays the team colours and range of partners that are involved in the start of this long-term programme with the goal of achieving success at the highest level in rallycross.

The team recently completed pre-season testing by racing at the opening round of the RallyX Nordic Championship at Skovde in Sweden, where Tohill qualified on pole position for the final and finished fifth overall.

The first round of the Euro RX series this weekend runs alongside the third round of the World RX calendar. 49 Supercars are set to take part across both championships, with no less than 30 of those in the Euro RX field.

Derek Tohill | Driver | Ford Fiesta #111

“It’s two and a half years since we had our own team running in international rallycross, so it has been a challenge for us to get on the road again for this season. It will be a victory to be there on the startline in Belgium but I’m really looking forward to it. This year we’re rebuilding and we’ll do our best.

A lot of work has gone into the new look and livery, we have a lot of great partners on board. The whole outfit looks really well. Big thanks to Fish Graphics recently for their efforts in working with us on the livery.

We learnt a lot at Skovde. We ran into issues but got on top of them all by the end of the weekend. It was a good exercise and good preparation for the year ahead. We have parts coming to meet us this weekend, but we’re in a pretty good place now.

The goal is to make the semi-finals in Belgium and go from there, but to be honest if that doesn’t happen it’s not the end of the world on our first proper event back. We’ll take it as it comes and try to build momentum as the year goes on.

This is a year of rebuilding and about getting a good infrastructure in place for the next few years. We’ll compete in a selection of European and World Championship rounds. This is a long term project and this is just the beginning.”

Tohill heads to Sweden for RallyX Nordic season opener

Posted: April 28, 2016 9:08 AM

Double FIA European Rallycross Champion Derek Tohill will compete at the opening round of the Swedish-based RallyX Nordic Championship this weekend at Skovde, Sweden (April 30 - May 1).

The Irish driver - who won the European TouringCar title in 2010 and 2013 ? had hoped to finish his preparations ahead of the first round of the FIA European Rallycross Championship at Mettet in Belgium next month by racing at the planned Irish Rallycross Championship event in Galway, but following the IRX round being cancelled, the PFCRX squad have elected to race in the competitive RallyX Nordic season opener, against a number of European and FIA World Rallycross Championship competitors.

Tohill's OlsbergsMSE built 600bhp Ford Fiesta Supercar had been at the Swedish team's workshop in Southern Sweden being upgraded to the latest specification, to allow him to race in World RX events this year, and will now stay on for the weekend event.

The RallyX Nordic event will also give the PFCRX team the opportunity to work alongside OMSE and the team's World Championship driver and reigning RallyX Nordic Champion, Kevin Eriksson, as the Swede embarks on the defence of his crown.

PFCRX has worked hard over the winter months to prepare the Fiesta Supercar for the 2016 season, and are delighted to welcome a number of exciting partners into the project, without whom Tohill's ambition to become the first Irish driver to win the FIA European Rallycross Championship in Supercar would not be possible.

Keep up with Derek's progress at Skovde on the RallyX Nordic website and Facebook page.

Derek Tohill | Driver | Ford Fiesta #111

"I'm really looking forward to racing in Sweden this weekend. It's all a bit last minute and unexpected, we had planned to race in Galway but with that event being cancelled we've made the decision to race at Skovde, after arranging flights for the lads to get out to Sweden.

"I'm impressed with the level of organisation of the RallyX Nordic Championship and the level of competition in the Supercar field is high. It will give us a good measure as to where we are before we get our European Championship campaign underway in Belgium. But, at the same time, we're not in a position to damage the car this weekend because Belgium is just a couple of weeks away, so we will be taking a cautious approach and doing our best to stay out of trouble.

Scandinavian rallycross circuits are usually great and I'm sure Skovde will be no different, and it's a big show with the STCC (Swedish Touring Car Championship) racing on the same bill.

The Fiesta is still in an interim livery, we had hoped to wrap it in its fresh 2016 design before racing in Galway, but as it now won't be coming home to Ireland it will get its new clothes before Mettet.

OMSE has been a great help in making our participation this weekend feasible so thanks to them and the RallyX Nordic organisers for their hospitality and the invitation to myself and the PFCRX team."

Derek Tohill to contest 2016 FIA European Rallycross Championship in OlsbergsMSE built Ford Fiesta Supercar

Posted: October 28, 2015 2:58 PM

Double FIA European Rallycross TouringCar Champion Derek Tohill will contest a full programme of events in the FIA European Rallycross Championship next season, driving an OlsbergsMSE built Ford Fiesta Supercar.

Following a year of planning the 2016 programme while contesting selected events in Ireland through 2015, Tohill - the only Irishman to compete in a full FIA World Rallycross Championship in 2014 - will debut the freshly built Supercar at the seventh round of the Irish Rallycross Championship this weekend at Mondello Park.

The 2010 and 2013 European TouringCar champion tested the Fiesta for the first time at Strangnas in Sweden on Monday with OlsbergsMSE, where Tohill and the PFCRX team got to grips with the new car, which has previously been used in the FIA World Rallycross Championship and recently updated to the latest specification ahead of 2016.

OlsbergsMSE is one of the front-running teams in the FIA World Rallycross Championship and in 2014 scored three victories to secure the Teams' Championship title at the final event in Argentina. Tohill raced in World RX in 2014 and finished 14th overall in a Citroen DS3 Supercar, but is looking forward competing in the Fiesta Supercar with a longitudinally mounted engine, more akin to the Fiesta TouringCar in which he became the first ever Irish European Rallycross Champion.

The four-wheel drive OlsbergsMSE Ford Fiesta Supercar produces 600bhp with around 800nm torque. Rallycross Supercars are widely regarded as being some of the most exciting cars in motorsport, and can accelerate to 100kph in two seconds.

Tohill will be aided in his quest for glory in the European Rallycross Supercar category by PFCRX chief engineer; Graham Ronan, team coordinator; Gordon Lynch and chief technician; Ross Sutov.

The PFCRX Ford Fiesta MK7 Supercar is currently sporting an interim livery before the full 2016 livery and partners are revealed in the new year. The calendar for the 2016 FIA World and European Rallycross Championships is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Derek Tohill | Driver | Ford Fiesta #111

"We had a very successful shakedown and test at Strangnas. We got excellent training and support from Andreas Eriksson and the OMSE team. We know we've a lot to learn but I'm really excited to be able to prepare through the winter for the 2016 season. I really believe we can compete for finals in the European Championship.

"The car is currently on its way to Ireland - it's great to bring it home and to be able to race it for the first time at Mondello Park. I've dreamt all my life about racing my own Supercar at Mondello and it's about to happen. It will be great to support the IRX too. We want to go and have some fun in the remaining two rounds of IRX and recapture some of the Fiesta magic that took us to two European TouringCar Championship titles. We've all worked very hard for this and I think the lads are as excited about the future as I am.

"We've been through a rebuilding phase this season and now we feel ready to head back into Europe, where we certainly have unfinished business in Supercar. It's going to be a big challenge but we're seriously motivated. OMSE has updated the car to the latest specification to be eligible to compete in World Championship events next season and we have great support from our partners. It's difficult to describe how excited I am.

"I really must say a huge thanks to my finance Treasa, father George and all of my family and supporters. Without them, this kind of programme simply wouldn't be possible."

Graham Ronan | Chief Engineer | Ford Fiesta #111

"We're very happy with the Fiesta and how the shakedown in Sweden went. It's great to work with such an experienced and professional team like OMSE, with the support of Mountune.

"Everything at the shakedown ran like clockwork, which was just perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better first experience with the new car. I'm looking forward to Mondello Park this weekend and competing against the best in Europe next season."

Topics: Rallycross