Fifth Place in the season opener for Kalinecki

The first round of The British Rallycross Championship was held at the famous Lydden Hill circuit on March 16th/17th and reigning Retro Rallycross champions Sportchip.ie were back to defend their title.  Their distinctive Lancia Delta Integrale had received a full rebuild at their Dublin base and was resplendant in its new white livery.

Conditions were nothing short of atrocious with tempratures hovering around freezing all weekend, making it difficult for all drivers. Kalinecki’s weekend did not start well with a rear joint breaking causing a non finish in heat one. Mechanics Martin Blitek, Bart Kluczyk and their guest from Poland Marek Wyrzykowski quickly had the car back on track for heat two, despite the difficult conditions! In heat two, the Lancia started at the back but quickly climbed through the order. Unfortunately contact with Lance Foster whilst challenging for second place demoted him to sixth at the flag. It was quickly becoming a very difficult weekend for the Dublin based Polish team…

In the third heat, taking no risks so as to ensure they qualified for the all important final, the Lancia came home fourth, earning them fourth on the grid for the big one! The final looked more pronmising as Greg charged through to take the lead before the end of the first lap. Unfortunately though, whilst leading the front mounting arm broke while negotiating the bumpy Chessons Drift and the Lancia coasted into retirement. A number of other cars had also retired though, crucially including Ray Morgan’s Excort BDA and Barry Stewart’s 500bhp Porsche 911 Turbo, so the team were still awarded 5th place, and some points which may come in handy when they are all added up at the end of the season.

The plan now that the car and team are back at base is to repair, modify and strengthen the front suspension- and they have plenty fo time for this as round two is not until the 12th of May.
The team would like to thank and welcome onboard their main 2013 sponsor- ”Mróz” (www.mrozdublin.com) who have network of Polish food stores in Ireland, as well as the rest of their sponsors: Turbo-Tech.ie, TKCCC.ie , Mactronic.ie, MBC Projeckt.co.uk, IntrexCarParts.ie, Diamond Group and of course their media partner- Gazeta Polska in Ireland