Lucas Oil Team Geriatric driver Lynch went into the weekend buoyed by a fine podium finish in the season opener at Lydden Hill last month on what was his maiden appearance in the BMW MINI class.

In the weeks between events, Tony and the team had worked hard on making improvements to the car, with a revised suspension set-up fitted ready for the second race meeting of the campaign.

Despite his car still being down on power compared to his rivals, Tony’s weekend started in fine fashion with victory in the opening heat, and a brace of fourth place finishes in the remaining two heats were good enough to earn him a front-row start for the final.

An early race clash with Keifer Hudson as the pair battled side-by-side at the start of the final saw Tony lose valuable time, with a half spin later on in the opening lap also dropping him away from the fight for the lead. Despite that, Tony was able to fight back to fourth spot for another solid points haul on his second outing in the MINI.

Despite missing out on a second successive podium finish, the progress made over the course of the weekend means Tony can now prepare for the third round of the year at Knockhill confident about his chances of victory, with further improvements to be made to his car prior to the trip to Scotland.

“Obviously I don’t come away from the weekend pleased with the end result, but when you look at the performance, I’m delighted with how we got on,” Tony said. “Although we’d made improvements to the car in time for Mallory, we know there is still work to do with it, so to show the kind of pace we displayed on track at the weekend is very encouraging for the remainder of the year.

“Winning the first heat is an indication of the potential we have, but we made a lot of progress over the weekend and are in a good position moving forwards.

“Scoring points in the early part of the season was always our aim as we knew it would take time to get used to the MINI after three years running in the Swift series. With our performance this weekend, and the work we have planned before Knockhill, I’m confident that we’ll be able to take another step forwards in Scotland.”

After three years of competing in the Suzuki Swift category, Tony and Lucas Oil Team Geriatric have switched focus to the equally competitive BMW MINI series, with the opening round of the new season marking Tony’s first appearance in the class.

With the late nature of his deal to contest the MINI series meaning preparation of his own newly acquired car is still ongoing, Tony took the decision to lease a car from elsewhere for the first meeting of the year, with his team working to prepare the car for the Lydden weekend.

Running in a striking new Lucas Oil livery, Tony set the fifth quickest time in practice before the team set to work on making improvements to the MINI, with Tony then making forward progress throughout the three heats to secure a place on the front row of the grid for the all-important final.

Despite the fact that his leased car was down on power, Tony produced a solid performance in the final to secure third place behind siblings Keifer and Kris Hudson, ensuring a strong points haul with which to start his championship campaign.

“After three years in the Suzuki, we felt it was time for a change and the BMW MINI class is an exciting challenge for us,” Tony said. “The MINI is also a good fit for us with Lucas Oil and is a car that people can relate to as it’s so popular with drivers on the road.

“With our new car being built up at the moment, we decided to lease a car to use for the early part of the season. The car was down on power a bit which didn’t help us at Lydden Hill and we’ll rectify that for the next round, but the boys worked hard to improve it over the weekend and we improved every time we went out which is a real positive.

“While it is always nice to win, I think we did everything we could this weekend and to finish on the podium is a job well done. We know there is a lot more to come as we learn about the car, and when our own car is ready, so to be third in the first meeting of the season is a good start. We can take a lot of confidence from our performance this weekend.”

Having signed with the ParkinGO team to ride an MV August F3, Iddon went into the opening round of the year in optimistic mood, although a tyre issue at the challenging Phillip Island circuit would ultimately prevent him from securing a solid top ten finish on what was to be a challenging first weekend of the year.

With the bike being early in its development and Christian’s experience of the Australian circuit being limited, tenth in the opening qualifying session was a good start – especially after a crash early on in the first practice session.

A second fall in Saturday practice left Christian with a broken bone in his ankle but with his bike repaired, he was still able to get on track for the second qualifying session – although he was unable to improve his time and finished up 13th on the grid.

Making up a place off the start, Christian ran solidly in a group of riders battling for position and worked his way into tenth spot before he started to suffer from rear tyre wear – an issue that had already led organisers to shorten the length of the race.

Despite his best efforts, the lack of grip saw Christian slip back to 21st place at the finish, although he remains optimistic about the season ahead as a result of his performance on track.

“It’s a bad end to what had been a promising opening round for us,” he said. “The MV has shown great potential and the entire ParkinGO team have worked hard. Something over which we had no control has cost us some decent points today.

“Friday’s first practice session was crazy. I crashed on my second lap, which was not exactly how we wanted to start the weekend. There was something down on the track and loads of other guys went down. We soon put that behind us and focussed on continuing to develop the new bike. I went tenth in the first qualifying session, which was pleasing.

“I had a big crash towards the end of Saturday’s practice session and broke a bone in my ankle. The guys worked superbly to get the bike ready for qualifying, but unfortunately, we couldn’t improve on Friday’s time.

“I had an injection in my ankle before the race, to ease the pain. It felt OK but downshifts were a bit difficult. I made a good start and settled into my rhythm early. I was able to gain a couple of places up early on, and was sat in the group which fighting for fourth. My pace was good and I started to pick-off riders one by one.

“Then suddenly the rear tyre just fell apart. There was nothing I could do. I kept circulating on the off chance that I could squeeze a point but in the end it didn’t happen. It’s a real shame because a top six was a very real possibility and a top ten was looking almost certain.

“This is only the second track this bike has ever seen so the way it has performed here is nothing short of amazing. The ParkinGO MV Agusta team has been fantastic all weekend and I’m sad for them that something, which was totally out of our control, ended our chances today.

“I’ll now try to get some treatment on my ankle before the next test in a couple of weeks.”

I have been involved in motorsport all of my life. I live for, and breathe, motorsport and have competed myself for a number of years – always giving 110 per cent in everything I have done.

It started when my dad and uncle raced karts in the late 1960s and early 1970s against people like future F1 champion Nigel Mansell. I had been dying to reach the age of eleven so I could get into a kart myself but my mum – eager to have her say – had other ideas and decided that it was too dangerous and I could have a bike instead.

It seemed like I had got the short straw, but that was far from it. We bought a damaged Suzuki TS90 trail bike from Slingers Motorcycles in Preston, took the lights off and off we went – week after week after week. I went from schoolboy competition to AMCA and then ACU.

When I got to 27, I decided to move into karting. I started out competing in 125 gearbox and then moved up to 250 national but there comes a time in your life when you want to try and give something back to the sport you have been involved with. I became part of the committee of Manchester and Buxton Kart Club but I soon realised that it was difficult to try and run a meeting and race at the same time without losing focus of what I was trying to do. It meant that my racing came to an end, for a little while at least.

I then came across Danny Tollett, who I know from Motocross, but who had started in Supermoto when he was with the Robinson team with Matt Winstanley and Chris Hodgson. Danny had approached me for some sponsorship and I wanted to improve customer awareness that we were selling motorcycle tyres, it seemed like it would be a good move. That was the start of my involvement in the other side of motorsport as I know how much it costs to compete, I sponsor people like Tony Lynch in the British Rallycross Championship and Christian Iddon in the Supersport class of British Superbikes, amongst others.

I went to watch Danny when he was practising with his Supermoto bike at my local track, Three Sisters in Wigan. I was so impressed with the whole package and even managed to borrow some gear so that I was able to try it out for myself. I was able to connect with the sport very quickly as I had experience of the tarmac side of racing from karting and the dirt side of things from Motocross. That started five years of backing it in and big jumps, but also a lot of pain and a lot of injury. It was a lot of fun at the same time, but after a few operations and collarbone and finger breaks, I decided it was time to go back to four wheels. That saw me switch to Superlite buggies, which race on the same tracks as the Supermoto riders.

That takes me to where I am now, and after 18 years I have gone back to my roots by returning to Motocross. That in turn led to me making a trip to see five-time World Motocross champion, Mr Georges John Jobe.

I was lucky enough, and honoured, to meet Georges Jobe two months ago when myself and motorsport artist Rob Kinsey went to Belgium to present him with a painting that I had commissioned of him jumping over Andre Malherbe at Hawkstone Park back in 1984. I’m sure that if you are a Motocross die-hard, you will have seen a poster of the image on a wall in a Motocross shop. Even by today’s standards, it remains the most awesome photo in Motocross history in my opinion.

While we were there, Georges told us about an event that he runs every year, which usually consists of three days of riding on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Our visit came just before Georges was going into hospital for two months of chemotherapy for leukaemia, and we were both touched when he told us that he planned to put the painting on his hospital room wall while he was undergoing his treatment.

Those two months passed, and suddenly out of the blue, I received an e-mail from Georges to tell me that he was having his event at his own track the following weekend. I’d bought a 250WRX to practice with as one of the things on my ‘to do list’ before I die is to go to the USA and race at Lake Elsinore. I’ve always been a huge fan of Steve McQueen and as he would say ‘You’ve got to do what you want to do’ and ‘I answer to nobody’ – so it’s a dream I want to fulfil. Even though I’d bought the bike, I’d only had a day out with Danny Tollett to see if I could remember how to ride the damn thing so it had been a good 18 years since I had really ridden in anger around a Motocross track.

Having received the e-mail from Georges, I had a plan to either head over to Belgium in my Sprinter van and find a Bed and Breakfast, or take my eleven ton race transporter – which usually houses the Superlite buggy I race in the Nora Sport Supermoto event and has living quarters in it. The funny thing is that the race transporter came out with a return cost of £90, while the Sprinter van was going to be £265, so the transporter was chosen for the trip. When I finished work on the Thursday at 7pm, I set off for Dover for the crossing to Dunkirk at 2am on the Friday. Rob had planned to make the trip with me again but his daughter had just got the keys for her new house and his job for the weekend was organising the removal team so he wasn’t able to join me. He really drew the short straw; gutted wasn’t the right word!

The truck isn’t the fastest thing on six wheels, but even though I hit the M1 and then M25 at very late hours, I couldn’t believe the amount of road works going on. The traffic was coming to a standstill, but the clock seemed to be going faster. With no time to spare for a fuel stop, I took the decision to get straight on the boat and get some fuel when I got off the boat at the other side.

I have been using the wagon for the last two years and never really had to use the state of art sat-nav system that I bought when I was kitting it out. This bad boy will play CDs and DVDs, has a rear view camera, the lot, but when it came to putting a post code in, I felt I should of gone to night school for a week to learn how to use it!

I tried my best and off I went, but wasn’t really feeling too confident as I thought I wasn’t going in the right direction. After half an hour of still not seeing a fuel station, my heart sank when I saw a sign for the Channel Tunnel and knew I’d been going completely the wrong way.

With a quick u-turn, I was dying to find a fuel station and somewhere to buy a bloody map, and I knew it was going to be at least half an hour before I got back to where I started. Having been on the road for an hour and a half after leaving the boat, the fuel gauge had never been so low – not even with the ignition turned off. The only spare diesel I had with me was for the generator and was in a five gallon drum. I had no pipe with me that was long enough to get to the tank under the truck, meaning the only way I could get fuel from one to the other was with a cup. However, it was a case of needs must and that was what I knew I had to do, although I didn’t want to pull off the motorway in case I couldn’t then get back on again.

I then came to a lay-by where luckily I saw an English trucker and I asked him where the nearest fuel station was. He replied that it was eight miles further on, so I headed off with a wing and prayer hoping that the truck didn’t run dry because I knew it would be a bitch to bleed.

There was some light at the end of the tunnel when the sign for the fuel station came up and I knew it was only minutes until I could get some fuel, something to drink and a bloody map, as the sat-nav would have been more use if it was giving me directions to the moon. Luckily the man behind the counter spoke good English so we talked through directions and I ordered a full tank of fuel. I also picked up a siphon pipe just in case I nearly ran dry again, and a map of Belgium to help when I crossed the border.

I knew Georges lived in a small town called Retinne, but with my luck, it was so small that it didn’t feature on the map I’d just bought. I did know it was near Liege, so the plan was to get to Liege and then work on the next problem, so I set off on an easy 150 mile drive ready to make enquiries. As I got closer, things fell into place as I started to remember some of the sights from my previous visit.

With the panic over fuel behind me, I was planning to get to Georges for dinner time, which would give me enough time to get settled down and unloaded so I could try and get a couple of sessions in and iron out any problems ahead of the weekend. The journey was going well, the CDs were playing strong, the sun was shining and the excitement was building with every mile. Firstly, because it would be nice to see Georges again and continue our conversations from my earlier visit, and secondly because I was interested to see what the circuit was like that a World Champion would practice on.

I remembered how passionately he spoke of the Motocross industry and of championships losing their way, and how disappointed he was to see that people were now buying rides with their chequebook instead of earning them through raw talent. With my background in organising karting events, I know only too well the strength of money when you walk around the pits and paddock. I’ve seen myself where money does the talking rather than the talent of the driver or rider.

I finally arrived at Georges’ home at around 1.30pm. It was deadly silent apart from the occasional thump of a hammer and the noise of KTM track tape blowing in the light breeze. There were a handful of bikes parked up near the marquee, where Georges’ son was serving refreshments. I said hello and asked if Georges was around, but I had just missed him as he had gone for a lie down after helping his small crew to mark the track out. So I went back to unload and prepare for my first ride round a proper Motocross track for 18 years. I was so excited, but also nervous at the same time.

Now there is green and there is green, but this place hadn’t seen a bike or a grass cutter for at least twelve months. The grass in places must have been two feet tall, so I wasn’t going to go too far off line in case I suddenly found a disused mine shaft or something. That’s probably me going over the top – sorry for the pun.

Even though it was very grassy, the fields and valley on what the track was set was totally natural and it made me remember the good old days of the schoolboy tracks I’d raced on in the 1970s. It also reminded me of the bigger tracks at places like Ripon, Thirsk, Farleigh Castle and Nantwich. It was old school and what grass roots racing is all about.

By the time I came off the circuit, Georges was there to greet me. His first words weren’t ‘How are you?’ but were instead ‘Well, what do you think?’. That sums him up in one go; passionate about doing a good job. In fact, he doesn’t try to go a good job, he sets out to do the best job. Everything he does or says is from the heart, and he does it all 110 per cent, which is why he is a five time World Champion. His commitment is second to none, even in the fragile condition he is in at the moment.

I had one more session and then called it a day, got cleaned up and had a beer with Georges for a short time. I could tell the preparation had taken a lot out of him, so we called an early night. I went to bed hoping that, even with the short notice to everyone about the event, that his hard work hadn’t been in vain and that there would be a better turn out for Saturday.
The next morning, the sun was out and the early birds were turning up and there were bikes on the track by 9.30am. With every session, the track was getting better and wider, with more grass being broken up by riders using different lines – the track was coming to its own. By dinner there were at least 60 riders riding round, living the dream of a World Champion and using his track to practice their craft for their next big race. It’s a bit like holy ground and even more so when I found out that in the 1980s, it was used for the Belgium championships. When I then found out that there had been two World Championship events there in the 1970s, it felt like Mecca. It couldn’t get any better.

I remembered I had camera equipment still fitted to my Superlite so I got up early and started to strip it off the buggy and place the wiring loom under the seat and tank and strapped the unit behind the front number plate. Then I taped the wire up my left arm and mounted the camera on my peak. If you go onto the TMX website then you should be able to see a few laps around the track.

I had a meal with Georges and his family and friends on the Saturday night. It was a privilege and an honour, and I hope it’s a friendship that will grow and grow with the strength like Georges is showing in his heart and body with his determination not to lose his next race – the fight for life against his illness.

Sunday afternoon came too fast and it was time to bid a fond farewell. Wagon packed I took five to have a few moments to cement a few memories of the weekend which had me reminiscing about my old motocross days. As I was sitting my thoughts went to a bottle of champagne which had been maturing in the fridge waiting to be celebrated on a momentous occasion namely my first win in my superlite final. I decided to make a discreet exit as I was finding it hard to say my goodbyes. With my emotions running high and a tear in my eye I left leaving behind the enjoyment of being back on my bike, new friends and a warm loving family who had welcomed me into their home and a bottle of champagne left on Georges patio with a note saying this was for my first win but “you’re the winner my friend”.

The bottom line is, this write up is for the old school boys who rode in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. It’s an open invite by Georges to turn the clocks back and remember what the tracks were like, to remember the camaraderie of people and to socialise, and more importantly have fun. The cost for this experience is 25 Euro a day, and I believe there is no charge for camping. If you have a classic, a twin shock, an enduro or even a newish bike like me, the door is always open.

Just like the film On Any Sunday, ‘live the dream’. unfortunately George passsed on the 19th december 2012 (R.I.P George your a true legend).

The Lucas Oil Team Geriatric driver headed into the latest round of the Monster Energy MSA British Rallycross Championship sitting just one point behind Johny Bean in the standings – and was well aware that finishing ahead of his rival would give Tony the chance to move back into the championship lead.

Things went well for Tony when a solid run in the three heats allowed him to secure a place on the front row of the grid for the A final, while Bean was forced to start on the final row having earned a slot in the main event with victory in the B final.

Tony’s hopes of a strong result to secure the lead were ended on the opening lap however, when he picked up a puncture that caused him to gradually lose speed and left him powerless to challenge his rivals on track.

Although a number of other drivers also suffered tyre issues, the fact that Tony was forced to complete almost the entire race with a punctured tyre meant that he finished at the back of the field while Bean was able to secure third and open up a slender lead in the standings ahead of the next round at Lydden Hill in late August.

“It’s no understatement to say that I was absolutely devastated at the end of the weekend at Mallory, as the final really was a missed opportunity for us to move into the lead,” Tony admitted. “We’d shown decent pace in the heats to secure a place on the front row of the grid for the final and had a real chance to get ahead of Johny after he had to qualify through the B final.

“When I picked up the puncture, I didn’t realise at first what the problem was and I thought there was an issue with the engine and also with the handling, as suddenly I started to slow and couldn’t keep anyone behind me. I don’t know where I got the puncture, but I wasn’t the only one; my problem was that I got a puncture before anyone else and it meant I ended the race right at the back.

“However, what happened, happened and there isn’t anything that we can do now to change it. We’ve had problems in the past and have come back from them, and that is exactly what we will do again this time. As far as I’m concerned, Mallory is in the past and I’m looking forward to giving it my all to get back to the top of the standings in the remaining rounds.”

The event, which ran alongside the BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship, comprised rounds three and four of the Suzuki series, with Tony and Lucas Oil Team Geriatric eager to build on his first win of the season in round two of the season at Knockhill.

Tony started round three of the season on Sunday with victory in the opening heat but, after a fourth place finish in heat two, his hopes of a strong grid slot were hit by driveshaft failure in heat three that left him fifth on the grid for the final.

On a dusty circuit where visibility was difficult, Tony was able to make up one place to secure fourth place – adding solid points to his championship tally in the process.

Tony started the fourth round of the season on Monday in fine form with victory in a race that had to be restarted after title rival Johny Bean rolled his car while battling Tony for position. Tony’s victory came despite the fact that his own car had picked up a damaged steering arm during the race, with Tony and the Lucas Oil Team Geriatric crew amongst those to then offer help to Bean and his CJB Motorsport repair his damaged car.

After a change to the schedule to give Bean and his team time to repair the damaged car, Tony secured victory in heat two and was then second in the final heat to secure a front-row start for the final.

Although beaten to victory by Graham Rodemark, Tony secured a solid second place finish to mirror the results secured by Bean – who followed up a second place finish in round three by taking fourth in his repaired car.

As a result of Bean also taking Fastest Time of the Day on Sunday, Tony now heads into a short break ahead of round five of the season sitting second in the championship, just a point behind Bean.

“Obviously, the aim going into the weekend was to try and secure a victory, but taking everything into consideration, we’ve come back from Northern Ireland with some solid points in the bag,” Tony said. “The broken shaft in the third heat on Sunday really cost me because there was so much dust in the final that it was difficult to see, so making up a place to finish fourth wasn’t a bad result.

“Again Monday didn’t start too well with the steering being damaged in the first heat but we still managed to get a victory there and were well placed for the final. Graham was able to pull a gap in the race and I used my head to settle for second and pick up the points as we’re only a point behind Johny and there is still a long way to go in the title race.

“Off-track, this weekend showed how the paddock can come together as everyone offered help to try and get Johny’s car out again so he could get into the final. If Johny hadn’t been able to race then I would have had the opportunity to open a gap in the title race but that isn’t the way to win a championship and I want to fight for the crown because of the results on track, not because of the misfortune of others.”

The next round of the Swift Sport Rallycross Championship will be at Mallory Park on 22nd July.

Alan Bott: Alan had his first outing at Three Sisters race curcuit (at Wigan) in round one of the British Superlite Championship. With a 3rd place in qualifiing and only .7 of a second off pole it looked like it was going to be close and interesting day but like all the UK at the weekend the weather was playing a major part in trying to run the event. But a 3rd place in race one and having a good battle in race 2 until the last lap when the clutch gave way but Alan still managed to limp home for 5th at the line. So with a steady start and trying to keep vision in the poor, muddy and rainy conditions Alan battled his way back to 3rd place at the finish in the final.

Iddon’s pace in qualifying was stunning, as he lapped well inside lap record pace. However, Iddon was not the only rider to do so. The top 7 riders went under the existing lap record, with Jack Kennedy taking pole; a whole 0.9s better than the previous record. Iddon ended up 6th on the grid.

Iddon didn’t make the best of starts in the sprint race, as he found himself caught up in the pack. It took until lap five before he was able to find a way past former team-mate Billy McConnell and in to 6th. By that stage, Iddon had lost touch with the leaders. With clear track ahead of him, Iddon was able to up his pace and close the gap to the group in front. He got the better of his team-mate Richard Cooper to move up to 5th. However, on the final lap a resurgent McConnell forced his way back past Iddon into Hizzy’s, running him onto the grass. Iddon rejoined the circuit and managed to hold on to 6th place across the finish line.

Iddon’s lap time was enough to put him 5th on the grid for the feature race, however he was only 0.055s off the fastest lap of the race.

Keen to get away with the leaders in the feature race, Iddon made a better start and was running in 4th at the end of the opening lap. On lap 6, Iddon overtook Glen Richards at Island Bend to take 3rd. Richards was soon to get his own back as he retook the position into Old Hall at the start of lap 8. Iddon also then lost out to Sam Warren on the same lap, as he dropped back to 5th. He remained in 5th until a red flag brought the feature race to a premature end after just 10 laps.

Iddon commented: “It was a good weekend with regards the pace we had. The Oxford TAG Triumph was fantastic again and I was lapping under the lap record.”

“I am a bit disappointed with the results because with those lap times you expect be fighting for wins, but all the boys at the front are going really well. We need to start getting some podiums to boost our championship hopes.”

“In the sprint race I just didn’t get away well enough and gave myself too much to do. I knew some of the other guys had gone with the soft tyre so I suspected that I would have more pace come the end of the race. I got caught behind Billy [McConnell] and then [Richard] Cooper which cost me too much time on the front guys.”

“As it turned out, it appeared that the soft tyre was actually the one performing better at the end of the race. We then thought about whether or not to use the softer tyre for the feature race but I just wasn’t getting the same feeling from the soft as I had been from the harder option. I had set all my fastest laps on the hard, so we stuck with it.”

“I got a better start in the feature race and was in with the lead bunch. I passed Glen [Richards] fairly easily and I was feeling pretty comfortable. I knew we would struggle for grip come the end of the race so I didn’t want to push the tyre too hard. Even with the shortened race the tyre was starting to go. I was spinning up around Druids which was then costing me all the way down into Lodge.”

“We are still 6th in the championship and because no one is dominating every round like last year, it is still fairly close. Hopefully we can move on to the next round at Snetterton and push for our first podium of the season.”

Reported and written by Sam Farrington

Racing will be shown on Eurosport TV.

Unlike the other events on the calendar, which run with the Monster Energy MSA British Rallycross Championship, the Nutts Corner event will see Tony and Lucas Oil Team Geriatric competing alongside the BTRDA Clubmans Rallycross Championship; which includes the Lucas Oil Team Geriatric-backed Stockhatch series.

Tony makes the trip to Nutts Corner sitting level with Johny Bean at the top of the championship standings and will hope to secure the outright points lead from the only ‘overseas’ event on the schedule this season.

However, while rival Bean has past experience of the Nutts Corner circuit, Tony will be competing at the venue for the first time and with the Bank Holiday meeting featuring two rounds of the championship – one on Sunday and one on Monday – getting up to speed quickly will be vital to his chances of success.

“Because I’ve not been to Nutts Corner before, I need to make sure I hit the ground running and get up to speed quickly,” Tony said. “Even though I don’t think the grid will be quite as big this weekend with the event being overseas, the top drivers are all going to be there so I can’t afford to hang about when it comes to learning the circuit.

“Johny has experience of Nutts Corner already so you’d have to say that will make him the favourite for the weekend, but I’m going to knuckle down and push him hard for victory. The fact we have two rounds means its even more important to pick up good points this weekend but we’ve also got to make sure we keep out of trouble on Sunday when there is another round to come the following day.”

Tony and Johny both have 34 points following the opening two rounds of the season, although it is Tony who is currently the championship leader thanks to his Knockhill victory.

The Lucas Oil Team Geriatric driver went into the weekend looking to kick-start his championship campaign having only managed a fourth place finish in the season opener at Lydden Hill, but was on the pace from the outset when the action got underway at the Scottish circuit.

Despite starting from the back of the field, and with a damper failure mid-way through the race, Tony stormed to victory in the opening heat of the weekend only to then trail in fifth in heat two after he was caught up in an incident with Paige Bellerby on the Joker Lap part of the circuit.

A storming drive in the final heat saw Tony secure a second victory, picking up the bonus point for Fastest Time of the Day and putting his car on pole for the final in the process.

Leading when the lights went out for the start of the final, Tony survived a tap on the rear of the car under braking as the field streamed down Duffus Dip and turned onto the loose part of the circuit. Breaking away as the field behind was caught up in an incident behind, Tony completed his Joker Lap on the first lap and – as the remainder of the field followed suit – he was left out front to secure his first victory of the season.

As a result, Tony is now level on points at the top of the championship standings with Johnny Bean, but leads the title race by virtue of his superior win rate.

“After the disappointment of Lydden Hill, that’s the perfect way to bounce back,” Tony said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be an easy weekend because Knockhill is a difficult circuit, and that was the case again as the bump as you came off the loose onto the bottom straight was really throwing the car around a lot.

“The boys did a great job to prepare the car and then worked really well to replace the damper in less than 20 minutes after the first heat. I was unlucky to get caught up in the incident in heat two and knew I had to push in the final heat but I didn’t expect to go so much quicker than my rivals did.

“I got a good start in the final to keep the lead but I did worry that they might throw the red flag when I saw the melee behind me on the opening lap. Luckily they didn’t, and even though doing my Joker Lap early meant I had to deal with traffic amongst those drivers who still had to do theirs, I was able to keep out front and get the victory.

“It’s just the kind of result we needed and I’m looking forward to another strong weekend when we go to Nutts Corner for the next round.”