Wigan racer Tony Lynch has his sights set on a front running performance when the MSA British Rallycross Championship in association with the Shannon Group heads to Pembrey this weekend for the sixth round of the year. Westhoughton-based Tony endured a trying weekend at the Welsh circuit during round three of the season back in May, when a number of driveshaft issues prevented him from qualifying for the final.

However, Tony fought back in fine style during the double-header event at Mondello Park in Ireland last time out – taking a stunning victory in the Super National Class in round four at the wheel of his Lucas Oil Team Geriatric MINI Cooper S. That success came at a price however, with a gearbox issue forcing the team to revert to standard gearbox for round five – and leaving it with a race against time to get the racing unit repaired in time for this weekend’s event.

Having collected the gearbox with just days to spare, the team has burned the midnight oil to re-fit it to the MINI, which has also been fully repaired after picking up extensive panel damage last time out. Tony will now hope to reward the team for its hard work when on-track action gets underway in South Wales, with the main target being to at least maintain his position inside the top six in the championship standings.

“The boys have worked really hard to get the car ready for this weekend and it’s now looking like new once again,” he said. “We’re returning to Pembrey on a high after the result at Mondello Park last time out, and hopefully we’ll be able to build on our first win of the year.

“I’m not saying that we expect to take victory again this weekend as we know that things fell our way in Ireland, but we should certainly do better than we did when we made our first trip to Wales earlier in the year.

“The driveshaft problem we faced then has been fixed and there is no reason why we can’t aim to qualify in the final and challenge for some strong points. We lost out a little bit in the second of the two rounds in Ireland, but with the racing gearbox now repaired and back in the car – and with the engine developments that worked so well at Mondello – we’re in good shape.”

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