Multiple British Stockhatch Champion Tony Lynch has taken his first win of the 2010 MSA British Rallycross Championship season on a historic night of racing at the Blyton circuit in Lincolnshire.
The Blyton race meeting was the first night race in the history of the British Rallycross Championship, with Westhoughton racer Tony heading into the event targeting his first win in the new Suzuki Swift Challenge.
Having only taken delivery of his new car on the eve of the 2010 season, the first two rounds of the year had seen Tony and his Team Geriatric team getting to grips with their new machine after success in recent years with a venerable Peugeot 205, which carried Tony to both the British Stockhatch and BRDA overall titles last year.
Arriving at Blyton for the night race, Tony was second quickest in the first two qualifying heats of the afternoon before going quickest in heat three, which had to be restarted following an accident involving World Superbike Championship rider Leon Haslam, who was driving the guest car for the event.
Those results saw Tony qualify second on the grid for the night time final behind Dave Bellerby, but he dropped to third place at the start behind former British Rally Champion Jonny Milner. Milner then ran wide to allow Tony back into second place but he was unable to close on leader Bellerby as the race was red-flagged following an accident involving Richard Elliott.
Given an unexpected second chance, Tony made the best start to jump ahead of Bellerby into turn one and was never headed as he led the race from start-to-finish to secure his first victory of 2010.
“We’ve done a lot of work to iron out the teething problems that we’ve had after getting the Suzuki at the last minute and this weekend was the first time I’ve really felt at one with the car,” Tony said. “The boys have worked really hard on preparing the car so it was great to get a result for them.
“I was lucky to get a second chance in the final, but when you get a second chance, you have to make the most of it. It was a victory gained on merit and not through mistakes from others which makes it even more satisfying and we now want to build on our first win of the year through the rest of the season.”
Tony’s victory at Blyton means he now sits second in the Suzuki Swift Challenge standings after three rounds of the season. His next outing will be at the Maasmechelen circuit in Belgium in early July.
