Wigan racer Tony Lynch will hope for improved luck this weekend when he makes the trip to Ireland for the latest round of the MSA British Rallycross Championship in association with the Shannon Group.

Westhoughton-based Tony heads into round four of the 2015 campaign seeking to return to the kind of form he showed in the opening event of the year back in March.

Since then, Tony suffered a rare retirement in round two at Lydden Hill and then faced driveshaft issues with his Lucas Oil Team Geriatric MINI Cooper S last time out at Pembrey, which prevented him from qualifying for the final.

Those issues in Wales masked a further improvement in performance for the MINI as the team continues with an extensive development programme on the Super National-class car.

In recent weeks, the team has worked with AVO on a new suspension set-up that will debut this weekend, while the car has also spent time with MINI specialists 1320 in an attempt to extract more performance from the engine.

While that investigative work is set to result in a more substantial engine development programme, which will help the team move forwards up the grid next season, a new injection system will provide Tony with more torque at the wheel this weekend and also boost performance as he seeks to impress at the County Kildare circuit.

“It’s been a busy time for us since Pembrey as we worked to improve the car again, and we’ve made some good progress in recent weeks,” he said. “AVO have provided us with some new shock absorbers to try out this weekend so we can further improve the handling of the car, and we’ve worked closely with 1320 to examine the best way to increase our power.

“The end result of that work is that we are going to re-evaluate how we move forwards with the engine, but that isn’t something we can do overnight and we’ll look at it when the current season is at an end. For now, we’ve worked on some tweaks that will boost performance, and added to the new gearbox we debuted in the last round, we’re confident that we can put on a strong performance.

“We’re also going to have a data logger fitted to the car for the first time this weekend which will allow us to gain a better understanding of exactly how the MINI is performing on track, and that will give us a huge advantage when it comes to the next part of our development plans.

“We know that there is a lot more still to come and it’s only because of the continued support and backing of sponsors like Lucas Oils, Pemberton Tyres, Sign-Tec and many others that we are able to keep pushing ahead with our plans. We’re heading in the right direction and hopefully we can show that again this weekend.”

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