Pemberton Tyres-backed racer Tony Lynch enjoyed another strong weekend of competition as the Monster Energy British Rallycross Championship headed to Mallory Park for the second round of the 2013 season.
Lucas Oil Team Geriatric driver Lynch went into the weekend buoyed by a fine podium finish in the season opener at Lydden Hill last month on what was his maiden appearance in the BMW MINI class.
In the weeks between events, Tony and the team had worked hard on making improvements to the car, with a revised suspension set-up fitted ready for the second race meeting of the campaign.
Despite his car still being down on power compared to his rivals, Tony’s weekend started in fine fashion with victory in the opening heat, and a brace of fourth place finishes in the remaining two heats were good enough to earn him a front-row start for the final.
An early race clash with Keifer Hudson as the pair battled side-by-side at the start of the final saw Tony lose valuable time, with a half spin later on in the opening lap also dropping him away from the fight for the lead. Despite that, Tony was able to fight back to fourth spot for another solid points haul on his second outing in the MINI.
Despite missing out on a second successive podium finish, the progress made over the course of the weekend means Tony can now prepare for the third round of the year at Knockhill confident about his chances of victory, with further improvements to be made to his car prior to the trip to Scotland.
“Obviously I don’t come away from the weekend pleased with the end result, but when you look at the performance, I’m delighted with how we got on,” Tony said. “Although we’d made improvements to the car in time for Mallory, we know there is still work to do with it, so to show the kind of pace we displayed on track at the weekend is very encouraging for the remainder of the year.
“Winning the first heat is an indication of the potential we have, but we made a lot of progress over the weekend and are in a good position moving forwards.
“Scoring points in the early part of the season was always our aim as we knew it would take time to get used to the MINI after three years running in the Swift series. With our performance this weekend, and the work we have planned before Knockhill, I’m confident that we’ll be able to take another step forwards in Scotland.”
