Daniel Lloyd will look to strengthen his position inside the top ten when the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship heads for Oulton Park this weekend for the fourth meeting of the year.
The circuit is the closest thing to a home round for the Huddersfield racer, who will look to fight for his first silverware of the year in front of what is traditionally one of the BTCC’s biggest crowds.
In a further boost, coverage of the weekend races will be split between ITV4 and the main ITV channel, providing the opportunity for Daniel to showcase his skills and promote his partners in front of an even larger audience watching from home.
A similar move at Brands Hatch for round two saw an extra 250,000 people tune in to catch the action.
Although 2022 marks only Daniel’s second full season competing in Britain’s premier racing series, he will be racing a BTCC car at Oulton Park for the fifth time – with three of his previous part-campaigns having included a trip to the famous Cheshire venue.
On his first visit back in 2016, Daniel secured a place on the front row of the grid, whilst he has since gone on to score points on five occasions.
He returns this time around on the back of five successive top ten finishes, and having scored points in all nine races run to date at the wheel of his EXCELR8 Motorsport-run Hyundai i30 Fastback N.
Those results mean the 30-year-old sits in a solid eighth place in the championship standings, but with the promise of plenty more to come as he continues to unlock more pace from his new car.
“I’m really looking forward to this weekend as Oulton Park is a circuit I absolutely love,” he said. “It’s what I would class as one of my local rounds, and there is always a huge buzz around the weekend with a big crowd to entertain.
“I’ve got good memories of Oulton Park having scored a front row there back in my Eurotech days, and I return this time around feeling confident as both myself and the team have worked hard on getting the car set-up that will allow me to push forwards and fight with that lead pack.
“We’ve been finding our feet a bit in the opening three rounds and have been consistently up inside the top ten, and I feel this is the weekend where can start to reap the rewards of the work that has gone in so far.
“If we can fight in the top five or six this weekend then I certainly won’t be complaining about it, but I’m really searching for a trophy and I feel confident that we can be in the mix.”
Ahead of the Oulton Park meeting, a push by Daniel to bring new backers onboard for the remainder of the season has generated a number of leads as businesses explore the benefits of partnering with the race-winning driver.
“We’ve had some really positive reaction to the sponsorship announcement, and have already started talking with a few people about potential partnerships,” he said.
“Hopefully there will be more positive news to come on that side in due course, but it’s great to see the interest that there is in what we are trying to achieve both on and off track this season.”
The opening two races on Sunday will air on ITV at 12:20 and 14:25 before coverage switches to ITV4 in time for race three at 17:10.
Daniel’s recap of the Oulton Park action will also be available after the weekend on his DLR TV YouTube channel, with a look back at Thruxton available on the link below.
