Westhoughton-based racer Tony Lynch has maintained his title challenge in the Swift Sport Rallycross Championship after an action-packed double-header event at the Nutts Corner circuit in Northern Ireland.
The event, which ran alongside the BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship, comprised rounds three and four of the Suzuki series, with Tony and Lucas Oil Team Geriatric eager to build on his first win of the season in round two of the season at Knockhill.
Tony started round three of the season on Sunday with victory in the opening heat but, after a fourth place finish in heat two, his hopes of a strong grid slot were hit by driveshaft failure in heat three that left him fifth on the grid for the final.
On a dusty circuit where visibility was difficult, Tony was able to make up one place to secure fourth place – adding solid points to his championship tally in the process.
Tony started the fourth round of the season on Monday in fine form with victory in a race that had to be restarted after title rival Johny Bean rolled his car while battling Tony for position. Tony’s victory came despite the fact that his own car had picked up a damaged steering arm during the race, with Tony and the Lucas Oil Team Geriatric crew amongst those to then offer help to Bean and his CJB Motorsport repair his damaged car.
After a change to the schedule to give Bean and his team time to repair the damaged car, Tony secured victory in heat two and was then second in the final heat to secure a front-row start for the final.
Although beaten to victory by Graham Rodemark, Tony secured a solid second place finish to mirror the results secured by Bean – who followed up a second place finish in round three by taking fourth in his repaired car.
As a result of Bean also taking Fastest Time of the Day on Sunday, Tony now heads into a short break ahead of round five of the season sitting second in the championship, just a point behind Bean.
“Obviously, the aim going into the weekend was to try and secure a victory, but taking everything into consideration, we’ve come back from Northern Ireland with some solid points in the bag,” Tony said. “The broken shaft in the third heat on Sunday really cost me because there was so much dust in the final that it was difficult to see, so making up a place to finish fourth wasn’t a bad result.
“Again Monday didn’t start too well with the steering being damaged in the first heat but we still managed to get a victory there and were well placed for the final. Graham was able to pull a gap in the race and I used my head to settle for second and pick up the points as we’re only a point behind Johny and there is still a long way to go in the title race.
“Off-track, this weekend showed how the paddock can come together as everyone offered help to try and get Johny’s car out again so he could get into the final. If Johny hadn’t been able to race then I would have had the opportunity to open a gap in the title race but that isn’t the way to win a championship and I want to fight for the crown because of the results on track, not because of the misfortune of others.”
The next round of the Swift Sport Rallycross Championship will be at Mallory Park on 22nd July.
