Yorkshire racer Daniel Lloyd will head into the new Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season in confident mood after a solid showing in the final pre-season test of the winter at Donington Park.
Huddersfield-based Daniel headed to Donington – which will also host the opening rounds of the season next weekend – to take part in the second official test alongside the remainder of the field, with the first having taken place at Croft earlier in the month.
That test proved to be frustrating for Daniel as a number of teething troubles with his new Hyundai i30 Fastback N – outside the control of his Restart Racing team – restricted his time on track, making the single-day Donington test more important than ever.
The morning saw the reveal of the striking livery on Daniel’s car prior to the start of on-track action, with support from First Locate, DEVELOP, Technology Desking, Autobrite Direct, Heatworks, Posynergi, Calder IT, Third Millennium, The Swiss Link, Marc Webb Building, Aqua Nero, Fastsigns Huddersfield and the various individuals involved with the Daniel Lloyd Members Club.
Once that reveal had taken place, Daniel enjoyed a productive morning session to log more than 50 laps of the national layout, setting a best time just outside the top ten.
The afternoon running would see Daniel then improve his time by more than six-tenths of a second as he ran well below the race lap record, putting him second on the times for much of the session before others bolted on fresh tyres late in the day.
That ultimately left him just 0.012s away from a top ten placing when the chequered flag dropped.
Encouragingly for Daniel, the performance came despite the fact that both team and driver know there is more to come from the Hyundai package, leaving confidence high about a strong start to the season at a circuit where it has run well in the past.
Daniel Lloyd said: “It’s great to be back on the grid this season after a lot of hard work over the winter, and thanks to the support of my various partners old and new. The fact we’ve now taken the covers off the car means it all feels that little bit more real, and it’s hard to believe that the first round is just around the corner!
“With that in mind, Donington Park was a really productive day in terms of planning for the opening three races. We had a tough day at Croft when we first rolled the car out with a few teething issues outside our control so it was important to get some decent mileage under our belt as we work to get the car where I’d like it to be.
“Even though I’m not 100 per cent happy with it just yet, we were in and around the top ten all day and only dropped down the order a little bit late on when some people bolted on fresh tyres to chase a time. That’s something we can take a lot of positives from, as we’re in the ball park and have plenty more still to come.
“The team has done a fantastic job so far to get the cars built for the new season and we’re leaning all the time with them. I think we can feel positive as we prepare for round one and I can’t wait to get going.”
