The summer break is long in the Avon Tyres British GT championship and with time to fill Michael Lyons – Essex based professional racing driver was in action at the Croft Nostalgia meeting at the Darlington Circuit in his Formula 5000 Lola T400.
Michael was again competing against a strong grid of drivers in each race this time including the more nimble Formula 2 machinery as well as the usual flurry of Formula 5000’s uniquely including his mother and father.
The 20-year-old was again racing in his Lola T400 on the Saturday and Sunday meeting and as he did at Oulton Park and Brands Hatch. This time though he didn’t quite have it all his own way and had to fight hard against the more nimble Formula 2 cars for a decent grid slot. In pouring and thunderous conditions, Michael managed to qualify in 3rd place – a spectacular effort for the conditions.
After his previous efforts in Formula 5000 this year at Oulton Park and Brands Hatch, the pressure was on not to slip up and to continue his winning ways and after the rest of Saturday was cancelled due to the weather, thoughts turned to the racing on Sunday.
From third place on the grid, in race one Michael made some incisive moves to take the lead and then take the win by 2.6 seconds.
In race two, Michael led from the front and was never headed to win by 21.7 seconds. In doing so, Lyons has kept his Formula 5000 winning streak and has now won all six races this year, which he has contested.
After the race meeting Michael said;
“This was a bit different from the other F5000 race weekends this year. These cars don’t really suit the tight and twisty nature of Croft and with the lack of downforce meant they were going sideways quite a lot! To add to it, the rain didn’t help in qualifying either, but it’s good to have a challenge and then rise to it!”
“It is currently the summer break in my British GT programme but it was great to get some more racing in. It was a bit of a busman’s holiday really, but it was a great event with all the nostalgia off track as well as the great racing on it. I’m already looking forward to this one next year.”
Michael’s next race in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship is at Rockingham Circuit in Northampton on September 4th where he will be racing in the Ferrari 458 GT3 with Scuderia Vittoria. Before that though, he will be racing his Hesketh F1 car at the Nurburgring next weekend.
