Archives May 2022

Wigan racer Tony Lynch enjoyed a near perfect weekend on track at Pembrey, with a double win allowing him to hit the front in the 2022 Retro Rallycross Championship.

Tony and his Landsail Tyres Motorsport Team Geriatric team made the trip to the Welsh circuit chasing a first victory of the campaign, having grabbed a podium finish from the opening meeting at Lydden Hill.

Although the Pembrey meeting would feature a smaller grid than usual as a result of issues for some of his rivals, Tony knuckled down and focused on the job at hand when track action kicked off on Saturday and he powered his Toyota MR2 to three wins from three in the qualifying heats to grab pole position for the final.

Seeing off the challenge of Rob Buckmaster’s Ford Fiesta on the opening lap, Tony soon started to build a gap out front and duly wrapped up his first victory of the campaign.

The day wouldn’t pass without problems for the Toyota however, with the team working to resolve an issue with the rear suspension ahead of Sunday’s action, which would see Tony doing battle in the opposite direction around the Pembrey circuit.

As had been the case the previous day, the Toyota would prove to be the class of the field across the three heats and final as Tony doubled up, despite running into further problems with the rear suspension.

The points scored across the two rounds mean Tony has taken a twelve point lead over defending champion Simon Hart in the standings ahead of the next round, which will be held at the Glosso circuit in Belgium in August.

“It was a shame that the field was a bit smaller at Pembrey, but when you are running older cars like we all do, there is always the chance that you can run into a few problems and repairs can take a bit longer to complete,” he said.

“We were all keen to put on a good show for the fans and in terms of the on-track action, things couldn’t have gone much better when it comes to the results we were able to pick up.

“The car performed well across the two days which is credit to the team for the work they put in to prepare it, and the only issue we had was with the rear suspension as the circuit proved to be a particularly tough on the cars.

“We know our partners at AVO will get that sorted before we head for the next round in Belgium and we’ve now got some time to sort out a few things with the car to make sure we can maintain our form through the rest of the campaign.”

Wigan racer Tony Lynch will look to close the gap at the top of the Retro Rallycross Championship standings when the series heads to Pembrey this weekend for rounds three and four of the season.

Tony endured as mixed start to his campaign at Lydden Hill after gearbox issues on his Landsail Tyres Team Geriatric Toyota MR2 hampered his challenge in the opening two rounds, but he still makes the long trip to Wales sitting second in the early season points.

The Toyota has performed strongly at Pembrey in the past, with the car having undergone significant improvements since in a bid to try and help Tony challenge for class honours during the season ahead.

Whilst the car will continue to run with the standard gearbox that was fitted during the Lydden Hill meeting following the issue that developed with the racing ‘box, Tony remains confident of a strong showing on track at a venue where he tasted victory last year.

Although a repeat would be welcome this time around, the main goal is to try and take points out of current leader Steve Cozens to enable Tony to strengthen his position in the title race.

“We know Pembrey won’t be an easy weekend but we go there confident that we can challenge for some strong results,” he said. “We saw last season that is less of a power circuit than Lydden Hill and that plays to our strengths with the Toyota as the handling of the car is something that we know is very good from all the work that has gone in.

“We’ll have to see whether we can get into a position to fight for victories this weekend but I feel more confident abou our chances than at Lydden Hill last month and we’ll be giving our all to try and pick up some silverware.”