The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship’s second seasonal visit to Hampshire’s speed bowl, Thruxton Race Circuit, over the bank holiday weekend delivered a more fruitful set of results for Huddersfield’s Daniel Lloyd (28-29 August).
A strong qualifying performance during Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session netted Yorkshireman Lloyd a fourth-row start for Sunday’s opening race – outperforming both his double-BTCC-champion teammate Jason Plato and four times-champion Colin Turkington in the works-BMW.
Starting from P8 Lloyd looked to be in strong contention for the first race before being hit with a five-second time penalty. Regrettably, after lining up on the grid, the #123 Vauxhall Astra was deemed to be out of position (due to the marker tape failing) and as a result, Lloyd was relegated to P11 at the flag.
Despite the disappointment of race one, another gritty battle in the highly competitive BTCC field saw Lloyd work his way up into the top-ten in the second contest of the day to claim another strong haul of championship points.
Just missing out on the reversed-grid draw for race three, Lloyd managed to avoid numerous on-track incidents throughout the frenetic weekend finale. Under constant pressure in the mid-pack, and in spite of three safety car periods – he managed to bring the Astra home unscathed in P11 to record this third point-scoring result of the day.
Daniel Lloyd #123:
“That was a positive weekend for us. Although the results could have looked better on paper, we showed a lot more pace. Qualifying especially was a massive step forward from our P22 result there in the first round of the season. I was way behind Jason [Plato] then, and this weekend I managed to out-qualify him. So I’m happy with my performance.
“We were really unlucky with the penalty in race one. I got a false start due to my reference tape falling off the barrier which is what we use to line ourselves up. If it hadn’t have been for that I think we’d have had a really good chance of three top-ten finishes. We came away with respectable results though and I feel really on the ball now with the car. We’re just taking small steps forward each round.
“Croft is up next, so I’m feeling really positive. It’s my home circuit and where I took my first BTCC win. It’s going to be a big round for us.”
Daniel currently sits in 11th place in the Independent Driver standings, with the Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing Team in 6th in the Independent Teams’ championship. The BTCC now has a three-week break before reconvening at Lloyd’s home track, Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire on September 18-19.
Lloyd picks up the pace to bag more points at Thruxton
