Daniel Lloyd produced a strong showing across two races at Knockhill but was left to wonder what might have been after the latest rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB in Scotland.
Huddersfield racer Daniel went into the weekend bidding to maintain a run of top eight finishes in the fastest one-make series in the UK, with confidence high at the wheel of his Toro Verde GT-run car.
Daniel displayed strong pace during pre-event testing, running well inside the top ten across two days of running, but Saturday’s qualifying would be a challenging affair as a minor problem with the brakes on his car left him down in 17th overall on the grid, despite the fact his best lap was only four-tenths of a second off pole.
With new brakes fitted for race day, Daniel went into the opening 32 lap encounter with his focus firmly on working his way through the pack, although he was also aware of the huge challenge that lay ahead around one of the tightest circuits on the schedule.
Daniel made up places at the start but his good work was undone when he then took a trip off track mid-way through the opening lap to drop back to 18th.
However, from that point on he was able to show his pace with a series of strong laps despite having to deal with traffic, and fought his way up into eighth in the Pro class and 13th overall.
That would set his grid position for race two, with Daniel once again getting away well off the line to make up two places and move to the fringes of the top ten – cheered on all the way by guests from both Calder IT and DEVELOP.
Grabbing tenth place just before a safety car period to allow for the car of former touring car rival Stephen Jelley to be recovered from the gravel, Daniel then overhauled Angus Whiteside for ninth as he continued to try and work his way up the order.
Unfortunately his charge would end when he found himself caught up behind the car of Oliver White through to the finish, although his race pace provided plenty of cause for optimism.
“Similar to Croft, there is an element of what might have been this weekend,” he said. “We had good pace in Friday testing but in qualifying, we had a small issue with the brakes and whilst it was relatively minor, it had a big impact when the times were so close. A fraction of a second quicker and we’d have been up into the top ten, which would have made a huge difference.
“The team changed the brakes overnight and the race pace was great. We had a good set-up on the car and the team did a brilliant job but we were hampered by where we were starting, which is a reflection of how important qualifying is in this series.
“Even then, to come back through the field across the two races to end up inside the top ten is good around a circuit like Knockhill, and I know we had the pace to be higher had I not been stuck in traffic.
“There are plenty of positives for me to take away from this weekend in terms of our race performance, and the key thing now when we head to Donington Park is to make sure we nail qualifying because if we do that, then I’m confident we can do well.”
