KENT'S former European Rally-Cross champion Will Gollop returned to the top of the winner’s podium on Sunday.

Competing in the British Rally-Cross Championship for the first time since 1997, the Blean-based driver showed all his old courage, style and experience to win the five-lap Superfinal at the Croft-on-Tees circuit in North Yorkshire.

After qualifying for the final in third place behind reigning British Champion, Ireland’s Dermot Carnegie, Gollop survived a first corner shunt to clinch victory in a time of two minutes 55.47 seconds.

He said later: “I had a one-off race back in October but, after spending two-and-a-half years preparing this car, I wasn’t sure whether I’d rent it out or drive it in the championship myself."

Gollop, who now runs the GTech race engineering firm in Hersden, near Canterbury, added: “I knew the car would be competitive but, because I’ve had little or no chance to test it, I wasn’t sure how reliable it would be. So yes, I’m delighted with the result.”

A three-time British Rally-Cross champion and motorsport legend, Gollop, has spent five years re-grouping for this latest assault on the title. “I have one backer in Morris Lubricants, but it will cost me something in the region of £100,000 to compete in this year’s championship,” he added. “That’s quite a daunting figure and one of the reasons I’ve taken my time coming back.

"It would be great for me to attract a local sponsor from Kent because two rounds of this year’s championship are at Lydden Hill and the grand finals at Brands Hatch in November.”

Gollop will be hoping for a quick return to the winner’s rostrum when rounds two and three of the championship take place at the Nutts Corner, Raceway, in Antrim Northern Ireland on Saturday, March 29, and Mondello Park in Naas, Southern Ireland, the following day.