Daniel Lloyd will look to get his Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship campaign underway in earnest this weekend when the series heads for Brands Hatch for the second round of the season.
Huddersfield racer Daniel made his return to the BTCC grid two weeks ago at Donington Park having inked a deal to join forces with the Restart Racing team, which saw him back behind the wheel of a Hyundai i30 Fastback N in Britain’s premier racing series.
Despite limited pre-season running, Daniel was on the pace from the outset and only missed out on making it through to the Quick Six battle for pole in qualifying by 0.055s.
That was despite the fact he was contesting the BTCC’s three-part qualifying format for the first time, having spent last season running in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.
Circumstances outside his control would limit Daniel to a single points finish of twelfth on race day, but there were plenty of positives to take away from the weekend that he will now seek to build on around the twisty Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
Daniel is on a run of six top ten finishes in his last nine starts at the venue, and with the Hyundai having taken multiple wins around the shortest track on the calendar, he goes into round two optimistic about a strong haul of points to get his challenge for the Independents’ Championship title firmly on track.
Given the pace displayed at round one, the first goal will be to try and secure a place in the Quick Six on Saturday to secure a place towards the sharp end of the grid for Sunday’s three races, which are scheduled to take place at 11:30, 14:05 and 17:10 – broadcasting live on ITV4.
The whole weekend, including free practice and qualifying on Saturday, will be broadcast online on the TOCA Live radio service, with qualifying also free-to-air on YouTube.
Guests from Technology Desking, Autobrite Direct and from the Daniel Lloyd Members Club will all be present track side to lend their support.
“Donington Park was a difficult weekend in terms of the results, but there were positives for us to take away from it,” he said. “We displayed strong pace for our first meeting with the car but luck wasn’t on my side, and there were a few little technical gremlins that we also had to deal with.
“The team has worked to resolve those gremlins over the past two weeks and I’m confident that we’ll be able to push for some strong results when we get to Brands Hatch – particularly as we now have an even better base set-up to work from with a race weekend under our belt.
“With such a short circuit, it’s going to be very close in terms of lap times and if we can replicate our qualifying performance from round one and try to break into the Quick Six it would really set us up well for race day. Solid points in all three races has to be the first goal to boost my position in the standings, but if there is the possibility of pushing for some silverware then I fully intend to take it!”
Daniel will go to Brands Hatch on the back of a race-winning outing in Britcar last weekend on the Silverstone GP circuit, where he shared a Porsche 991 with Steve Gambrell. The race weekend is the focus of Daniel’s latest Vlog on his DLR TV Youtube channel, which can be viewed HERE.
