Huddersfield’s Daniel Lloyd followed up his recent maiden Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race win with a duo of top nine finishes this weekend during the series’ historic 60th Anniversary event at Snetterton (July 28/29).
Lloyd and the BTC Norlin Racing team continued their current run of strong form on the 2.99 mile Norfolk circuit, managing to secure points finishes in all three races and claiming double points during the weekend’s special 60 mile finale.
Looking to kick-off the second half of the BTCC season with a solid points haul, Lloyd sadly started the weekend on the back-foot having missed out on the crucial two-day tyre test leading up to the weekend. The lack of data and track time unfortunately showed in the lap times set during Saturday’s two qualifying sessions with the #26 Honda Civic Type R recording P23 and P17 grid positions for the first and last ofSunday’s races.
Race 1 was a chaotic opening race, with heavy rain leading to precarious racing conditions and poor visibility. In-spite of the challenges on-track, Lloyd managed to avoid a number of on-track incidents to take a superb P9 at the flag – having made up an impressive 14 places and claiming the Dunlop Forever Forward honours for his efforts.
A drying, but greasy track greeted Lloyd for race 2 with the entire grid opting to run on the soft-compound slick tyres. A strong start from the Yorkshireman saw him running as high as 6th in the opening laps before contact on lap 4 knocked the Civic Type R off-track and down the order. Regaining his composure back in P20, Lloyd went to work closing down the places as the laps unfolded – eventually crossing the line in 15th.
With double points on offer, and an extended 20 lap contest bringing the day’s racing to a close, Lloyd set his sights on breaking into top ten. Starting from 17th, a battling performance from the 26-year-old saw him scythe his way through the pack during the accident-packed race. Fighting his way back from an early excursion off track which dropped the #26 Honda down to 20th, Lloyd’s resilient drive was rewarded with a 2nd top nine finish of the weekend.
Lloyd commented; “We had some really good pace this weekend, but were a bit unlucky at key points in the races. We came into the weekend on the back foot already after missing the test. We then didn’t have clean FP sessions after a few niggles with the car, so to be fair, we dragged some great results out of the weekend. We fought really well and we kept out of a lot of the trouble on track.”
“The first race went well. Coming from 23rd up to 9th was great, especially in those conditions. I got another strong start in race 2 and I think we had a really good chance of finishing in the top 5 until we got hit. I went up the inside but unfortunately got tagged by another car which caused a bit of damage. Then going into the corner at the end of the straight it put me off the circuit and dropped us back.
“I got off to another strong start in race 3 but then got boxed out at the hairpin and onto all the damp so dropped back to 20th before managing to fight our way back to 9th;” added Lloyd. “We’ve definitely got the race pace in the car; the results didn’t really show that.
“If we can nail qualifying at Rockingham then we’ll be right up there at the sharp end challenging for podiums.”
Having only raced at three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship meetings this season, Lloyd is already making his mark on the Championship having leapt into 17th place in the Overall standings and 14th in the Independent points. The weekend’s results have also helped to push the BTC Norlin Racing Team into 4th place in the Independent Teams standings as the BTCC heads to Rockingham Speedway, Northamptonshire for rounds 19, 20 and 21 on August 11/12.
