In a weekend where a strong result was crucial to his championship assault, Tony Lynch endured a weekend of mixed fortunes at Mallory Park in the Suzuki Swift Challenge.
The multiple British Stockhatch Champion lay second in the standings, behind Dave Bellerby, leading up to the Mallory Park event.
Lynch was excluded from the first heat after being removed from the classification following contact with Ryan Lawford whilst attempting a pass on the first lap.
Television footage later showed that there was little in the matter, in what could be classed as a racing incident.
As a result of the incident, Lawford crashed out of the heat, and a red flag halted the race. Lynch went on to win the restart, but was later stripped of the victory when the exclusion was announced.
Speaking of the first heat exclusion, Lynch said “The first heat was clearly disappointing and put us on the back foot”.
“What happened with Ryan was an unfortunate incident as the gap was there before he turned in and we touched. There was no intent as the stewards saw, so the penalty left us with work to do for the rest of the event”, added Lynch.
Lynch started the final from fourth on the grid, and made good early progress, as he moved past both Steve Hill and Chris Scott at the start of the race.
Try as he may, Lynch could not make a solid pass on Bellerby for the lead, despite once looking like he could make a move stick.
Lynch crossed the line second, behind the victorious Bellerby, and despite the fact that the points margin between the pair was slightly extended, Lynch will be glad that the damage for the weekend was minimal.
Bellerby sits 31-points ahead of Lynch, with three rounds of the championship remaining.
Of his second place finish after a difficult weekend, Lynch said “From fourth on the grid, second was a good result in the final as it was always going to be difficult to beat Dave from there. We needed to get ahead at the start and did well to get past Steve and Chris, but Dave was able to control it at the front and keep me behind. While we always want to win, we can't be disappointed with second this time around”.
