Daniel Lloyd was left to wonder what might have been at Croft despite securing a brace of top eight finishes from the latest rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB season.
Huddersfield racer Daniel headed into the weekend looking to replicate the top six finishes he had scored at Thruxton prior to the summer break, which marked his best weekend of the campaign to date with the Toro Verde GT team.
Having shown strong pace in a pre-event test at the North Yorkshire venue, Daniel was also in fine form in Friday practice, where he led the way in the opening session before ending the day second in the Pro class on the combined times.
Saturday’s qualifying session however would prove to be something of a lottery after rain showers before the cars hit the track, with track conditions that drying over the course of the 30 minutes of action.
Unable to truly show the pace in his car, Daniel had settle for tenth in the Pro class and twelfth overall, with forward progress the only aim going into race one.
A solid start saw Daniel get ahead of Ollie Jackson on the run down to turn one before gaining a further spot after an incident ahead that resulted in the safety car being deployed.
After the restart, Daniel worked his way up into eighth spot, spending the remainder of the race trying to find a way ahead of James Wallis and former BTCC rival Stephen Jelley before taking the flag having gained four spots.
Holding station on the opening lap, Daniel then quickly moved up into P7 and would spend the entirety of the race embroiled in a similar battle to race one with Jelley and Wallis.
Unable to find a way ahead, Daniel shadowed the pair throughout before taking the flag in seventh place to add more vital points to his tally in front of a raft of guests, including commercial partners from First Locate, NUTREIN, Green View Projects, Marc Webb Building and Mongoose Social.
“It was ultimately a weekend of what could have been, and it started so well on Friday to end up P1 and P3 on the times across the two practice sessions, which really showed the potential we have,” he said. “Unfortunately we just got caught out by the changing conditions in qualifying and didn’t get a clean lap in which meant the races were damage limitation.
“The pace in the opening race was really strong, but Croft is a very tight circuit and the Porsche isn’t a small car, so put the two things together and overtaking isn’t easy. Making up four places was a positive result and then in race two, I made up another spot but had an issue with the tyre pressures that meant the car was unbalanced.
“Even with that, we did well to bring home more points and we ultimately had a positive Sunday that leaves me confident that some really good results are coming our way over the remainder of the season.”
