Irish rallycross star Derek Tohill showed his best pace to date at the fourth round of FIA World Rallycross Championship at Kouvola, Finland making his second semi final start of the season.

The LD Motorsports driver was unlucky to be caught up in another drivers accident at the start of the semi final in extremely wet conditions, crashing out in the second corner. Despite the accident, Tohill is pleased with his pace in the Parts for Cars Citroen DS3 Supercar, in which he ran in the top eight all weekend in the ultra competitive World RX field.

“We knew we had turned a corner at the last round in Norway, towards the end of the weekend there we had found out how to get speed out of both me and the car,” said Tohill. “We hit the ground running here in Finland, straight away I was driving the car in the manor it requires to get the best out of it, and our lap times were really good.”

Quick in all of his heat races, Tohill beat a selection of high profile motorsport stars in heat four to qualify eighth overall at the Intermediate Classification. “We had four strong heats, and were in the top eight all weekend. We are really mixing it with the top guys now. To beat the likes of Petter Solberg, Timur Timerzyanov and Liam Doran in a straight fight in a heat was great. I got a great start in the semi final, it’s such a shame that both me and my LD Motorsports team mate Liam got put out by getting caught up in Toomas Heikkinen’s accident. He probably couldn’t see where he was he was going, the conditions were that bad.”

Happy with his speed, Tohill plans to continue his Supercar development next weekend at the fifth round of the World Rallycross Championship in Holjes, Sweden (5 - 6 July).

“I had given myself until after Holjes to be at a top pace, so we are there an event early. We are just going to get stronger and stronger as the year goes on,” said the Teng Tools supported driver. “The car was really good all weekend, the team did a great job, I couldn’t have asked for more. Hopefully we can maintain this pace next weekend. I love Holjes, I can’t wait to get there next weekend, it’s the holy grail of rallycross