Daniel Lloyd’s quest to secure additional backing for his programme in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship has taken after on added importance after a high-speed accident in the most recent event at Oulton Park severely hit his bid for on-track success.
Huddersfield-racer Daniel was lucky to escape serious injury in the accident, which occurred in the final race of the weekend at the Cheshire circuit.
Having enjoyed his best qualifying result of the season on Saturday, and after scoring a first fastest lap of the season earlier in the day, Daniel was battling for the podium places when unfortunate contact on track saw his EXCELR8 Motorsport-run Hyundai spear into the barriers at Hilltop.
Unfortunately for Daniel, the car then rebounded onto the circuit in front of the following pack, where it was struck by the BMW of Colin Turkington and then again – to a lesser extent – by the Vauxhall of Michael Crees.
Despite the violent nature of the incident, Daniel was able to escape serious injury, with hospital checks afterwards revealing severe bruising but no broken bones – reflecting the strength of the current era of BTCC race cars.
With less than two weeks until the next event of the season at Croft, work is now underway on repairing the damaged car, but with the damage bill set to to use a major chunk of his already tight budget, Daniel’s quest to secure additional sponsorship for the programme has taken on added importance as he seeks to build on the results he has scored thus far.
“I’m feeling absolutely devastated about what happened because up until that point, it had been our best weekend of the season so far,” he said. “We’d scored our best qualifying result, had a fastest lap in race one and I’m sure we’d have come away from the final race with at least a podium finish.
“I’ve been told by TOCA that the impact in the incident was over 40G and at that point on the circuit, we’re in fifth or sixth gear – so Colin was probably doing 100mph when he came across me static in the middle of the track and there was nowhere for him to go.
“All things considered, although I’m currently feeling a lot of pain and discomfort, I’m lucky that its mainly just bruising and nothing is broken and I’m also glad that Colin has escaped any serious injury.
“I have to give massive credit to TOCA and to the team for the fact that I was given such a strong car, as the forces involved in the incident were huge and I could easily have come away from the weekend in a much worse physical state than I am.
“However, there is no getting away from the fact that I am now facing an extremely difficult situation going forwards, as it’s clear to see how badly damaged the car is. Following a meeting with the team to discuss what needs to be done, it seems we won’t need to replace the shell but whilst that is a huge relief, it still leaves a repair bill in excess of £60,000.
“Although I have fantastic support from my partners, there is no escaping the fact that the repairs will eat up a significant amount of what was already a very tight budget and as a result, my search for additional sponsorship is now more important than ever.
“If there are people who would like to get involved at any level, then please get in touch.”
