Liam Doran has been one of rallycross’ busiest drivers this season, traveling across the world to race with minimal time out of the car. It’s that extra seat time, plus a competitive new car, that has enabled Doran to score his second career X Games gold medal.
Doran’s new ride for 2013 is a Mini Countryman, adapted by the Prodrive team from World Rally Championship competition. The new car replaces the Citroen C4 that he used at X Games in 2011 and throughout 2012, although he brought a Citroen DS3 to X Games Foz do Iguacu when the season opened.
No matter what vehicle he’s been in, though, Doran has been fast. He took the top seed at the season’s first two races, once in the Citroen and once in the Mini, and even posted the second-fastest seeding lap at Bristol Motor Speedway, a wider and faster track that was thought not to suit the Mini’s smaller weight class and engine.
Sometimes that speed has translated into podium finishes. Only two drivers medaled in both X Games Munich races, and Doran was one of them; he won the first event despite only having three good tires and finished second in the other race.
But Doran has also run into his share of trouble on the track. He made contact with Toomas Heikkinen in his heat race in Brazil, falling behind and going to the last chance qualifier, where an incident on the start line with friend Bryce Menzies ruined any chance of making it to the final. (That event sparked a rivalry between Doran and Heikkinen, who also had run-ins in Munich.) At Bristol, a pile-up heading from the dirt into the gravel took him out of the main event right away.
Despite missing the New Hampshire event, Doran enters X Games Los Angeles sixth in points, with a car that the opposition cannot underestimate. This may not be a championship year for him due to schedule conflicts, but Doran will continue to threaten to win races for the rest of the season.
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