Tony Lynch gets set for season bow in Ireland

Wigan racer Tony Lynch will make his first appearance of the Retro Rallycross Championship season this weekend at Mondello Park, when the series heads for Ireland for the third and fourth rounds of the campaign.

Tony was forced to sit out the opening double-header meeting at Lydden Hill at the start of April having undergone surgery during the off-season, with the Landsail Team Geriatric driver have now been cleared to make his return to competition.

Mondello Park had been due to kick off an exciting new challenge for Tony and the team with the move up into the Super Retro class with his trusty Toyota MR2 – which has carried him to the Retro crown for the past two seasons.

However, unfortunate issues with the supply of parts have delayed the build of the new engine that would allow Tony to move up into the Super Retro class, leading to the team taking the decision to continue in Retro for the remainder of the season.

That will provide the team with the time needed to both install and then test with the new engine; giving the best possible opportunity to challenge towards the front of the Super Retro class.

With those plans now in place, Tony heads to Mondello Park hoping to replicate the kinds of results that carried him to the Retro crown last year.

Mondello Park last season proved to be one of the most competitive weekends of the season for the Toyota, with Tony able to take the fight to a number of more powerful Super Retro cars on what was a combined grid.

Having missed two rounds whilst recovering from his surgery, Tony’s focus is firmly on challenging for event wins as opposed to a championship challenge, with confidence high about the weekend ahead.

“Obviously it’s a bit frustrating that we have to delay our move to Super Retro, but the issues with parts are something we have no control over, as there are specialists bits that we need that just haven’t arrived from the USA,” he said. “Having thought long and hard about it, we could have tried to source parts from elsewhere but want to make sure that we are maximising our investment in the engine and want to do the job properly from the very start.

“As a result, we believe that sticking with the Retro class for the rest of the season makes the most sense, so that we can get the engine built to the correct specification with the correct parts, and then when it is ready, we have the time to make sure everything is working as it should.

“Mondello Park last year was a weekend where we showed really strong pace with the car up against more powerful Super Retro machines, so it should be a good place for us to kick off our season. Although I’ve not been on track for a while, I’m confident that we’ll be up to speed quickly and will be in the mix towards the sharp end of the grid and it would be great if we could kick off our delayed season with a trophy or two.”