Daniel Lloyd enjoyed a productive weekend as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship headed for Croft, with a brace of top eight results from the eighth meeting of the campaign.
The trip to the North Yorkshire circuit marked the second outing of the year for Huddersfield-racer Daniel after he was drafted called up by Restart Racing to compete in the final founds of the season.
The reigning Independents’ Champion had endured a difficult return to action at Donington Park a fortnight earlier that had ended with his suffering fire damage due to a dislodged fuel line, with the team working hard to ready the #123 Hyundai for Daniel’s home event.
The weekend started in positive fashion as Daniel lapped just outside the top ten in free practice, and he then improved his pace in qualifying to secure eleventh on the grid for the qualifying race – albeit having lost a quicker time to track limits that would have seen him line up in seventh.
Despite suffering with an overheating engine at stages during the race on Saturday afternoon, Daniel emerged unscathed with a tenth place finish which meant he would line up for race one proper on Sunday on the fifth row of the grid.
Rain on Sunday morning resulted in Daniel lining up on wet tyres for the start, with a strong start seeing him gain two spots on the opening lap.
Although overhauled by Daryl DeLeon’s BMW, Daniel continued to fight hard in challenging conditions to cross the line in ninth spot only to be demoted to 13th in the final results thanks to a penalty for exceeding track limits.
Like most of the field, Daniel then bolted on the soft tyre for the second race on a now dry circuit was soon making up the ground lost earlier in the day, rising into the top ten by the mid-way stage of the race.
LOOK BACK AT DANIEL’S CROFT WEEKEND WITH HIS LATEST DLR TV BLOG ON YOUTUBE
Continuing to push hard at a circuit where he had scored three of his career BTCC wins, Daniel found himself embroiled in a huge battle with race one winner Josh Cook before overhauling the Toyota driver late on to take the finish in seventh spot.
The reverse grid draw put Daniel fourth on the grid for the weekend finale but he was now one of the drivers forced to run the slower hard tyre, with a number of rivals towards the front being able to use the soft.
Despite that putting him an at immediate disadvantage, Daniel concluded a positive weekend with another strong drive to finish eighth on the road despite picking up a five second penalty for exceeding track limits, leaving him as the second highest finisher on the hard rubber.
Daniel would later be promoted into seventh spot as a result of a penalty for one of the drivers ahead, leaving him with a solid haul of points from the three races as he now turns focus to the next event at Silverstone.
“Overall it’s been a hugely positive weekend and without the track limits penalty in race one, we’d have been in the top ten in all three races,” he said. “Considering how things finished at Donington Park, that’s something I’m really pleased with and credit to the team for not only getting the car fixed after the last round, but also for getting it more dialled in to my driving style.
“Like all of the Hyundais on the grid, we were lacking a bit of straight-line speed but we still showed good pace across Saturday, even after some overheating issues in the qualifying race in the afternoon.
“We improved the car for Sunday and went well in tricky conditions in race one, and then made more improvements for race two where the car felt really strong. We had to use the hard tyre in race three which was always going to hinder us a bit but even then we managed to pick up a decent result and kept a number of cars on the ‘quicker’ tyre behind us.
“This has been a weekend of solid progress and has given us a good platform to now try and build on over the last two rounds. Silverstone was a good circuit for us last season with a win, and we’ll be looking to put in another strong performance when we return later this month.
“A huge thank you once again to DEVELOP, JLC Group, Calder IT and iab Lab for their ongoing support, and also to Bonkers Competition who have come back onboard for the remainder of the season and are running a special competition with VIP tickets for the next event at Silverstone. This return wouldn’t have been possible without their backing.”
