Archives 2022

Wigan racer Tony Lynch will look to kick off his Retro Rallycross Championship challenge in style this weekend when the 2022 season bursts into life at Lydden Hill.

Tony and his Landsail Team Geriatric squad make the long trip to the spiritual home of rallycross in Kent hoping to challenge for silverware in the opening two rounds of the campaign, with Round 1 scheduled to take place on Saturday, and Round 2 then being run on Easter Monday.

The opening round will mark the first outing for Tony’s upgraded Toyota MR2, which has undergone a number of improvements during a major winter rebuild that was carried out following a heavy accident in the latter part of 2021.

A planned test outing in the BTRDA Rallycross season opener at Blyton last month had to be cancelled as a result of an electrical issue that was discovered during a pre-event run on a rolling road, with the team working to resolve the problem ahead of opening Retro round.

After successfully running the car on the dyno this week without a reoccurrence of the issue, Tony goes into round one in confident mood, with the goal being to try and challenge towards the sharp end and put a solid haul of points on the board.

“It’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to run our planned test at Blyton so there is an element of us going into the unknown this weekend,” he said.

“The boys have put a huge amount of work into the car over the winter alongside Paul Waldron Motorsport, and I’m confident that the improvements that have been made will help us on track as we look to challenge for the title.

“We don’t want to get too carried away but we head for Lydden Hill with one goal in mind and that is to fight for victory. We want to be in the fight for championship honours this season, so a win would be a great way to start.”

Wigan racer Tony Lynch will get his 2022 racing programme underway this weekend when he heads over the Pennines to Blyton for his first outing of the new season.

Tony and his Landsail Team Geriatric outfit will take part in the opening meeting of the new BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship season as part of the team’s preparations for the new Retro Rallycross Championship campaign, which gets underway at Lydden Hill next month.

The decision to contest the BTRDA opener has been taken in order to gain vital track time with the upgraded Team Geriatric Toyota MR2, which has undergone a full rebuild over the winter.

The extensive rebuild programme, carried out by the team alongside Paul Waldron Motorsport, came on the back of a bruising end to Tony’s 2021 campaign which left the Toyota extensively damaged following a fire and an accident at Knockhill.

As well as fully repairing the shell, the team has worked hard to remove weight from the car to boost the power-to-weight ratio, with the engine also given a full rebuild and further work carried out on the suspension alongside team partners AVO to improve handling.

With the goal for 2022 being to try and secure the Retro Rallycross Championship crown, this weekend’s outing will be used by the team as a test, with the focus firmly on readying the Toyota for next month’s Retro opener rather than chasing an outright result.

“After a difficult end to last season, we took time to regroup over the winter and evaluated our plans for 2022,” Tony said. “Clearly we have unfinished business in Retro Rallycross after the incidents at Knockhill cost us the title so having made the decision to return, it was all about what to do with the car.

“Repairing the Toyota hasn’t been a small job in recent months so huge credit has to go to everyone in the team and to Paul Waldron for getting it prepared for the new season, and we now go into 2022 with the car in better shape than ever before.

“Given that we haven’t been able to go out and test the car, the plan for the Blyton weekend is make the most of the track time available to make sure we are in the best shape possible for Lydden Hill when the serious business gets underway. The on track results aren’t important and given that we will also be running outside our usual class, I’ve got to drive with my head and not try and get involved in battles I don’t need to get involved in.

“Our programme this season wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our loyal sponsors so a huge thank you as ever to Landsail Tyres, Lucas Oil, Pemberton Tyres, AVO, Rye Motors, Wigan Car Paints, Signtec and Tootsies as well as our latest backers Feel Good Health Clubs. Special thanks to Paul for the work that he has put in alongside my boys to prepare the car, and we look forward to working alongside him more closely as the season goes on.

“I’m confident that we can have a successful season on track this year, and can’t wait to get started.”