An incident outside his control would once again decide the outcome of race day for Daniel Lloyd he was restricted to a single points finish during the second meeting of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season at Brands Hatch – despite displaying front-running pace for much of the weekend.
Huddersfield racer Daniel headed into the weekend chasing a strong haul of points at the wheel of his Restart Racing-run Hyundai i30 Fastback N, having shown impressive pace across the weekend at Donington Park two weeks earlier.
On-track contact during the season opener had restricted Daniel to a best finish of twelfth place, but he was right in the mix towards the front from the moment track action kicked off in Kent, ending free practice well inside the top ten and just two-tenths of a second off top spot.
Confidence was high going into qualifying, with Daniel successfully making his way through a tricky group in Q1 before going agonisingly close to a place in the Quick Six battle for pole – leaving him to start the opening race of the weekend from eighth on the grid.
With Dunlop electing to take the soft and hard compound tyres to the circuit, and a vast difference in performance between the two, Daniel took the strategy of running the soft tyre in the opening two races to try and maximise the pace in the Hyundai in his push for points.
Retaining position at the start, Daniel was embroiled in a heated midfield battle throughout the race before taking the flag in a strong seventh spot. A unfortunate five second time penalty for being slightly out of position at the start undid some of his good work, but the pace displayed during the race meant he was still able to secure his first top ten finish of the campaign.
Heading into race two, Daniel was eager to move forwards through the pack but lost ground at the start when he was slow away from the line and slipped back down to twelfth place.
Getting his head down, Daniel was in the midst of a multi-car battle for position when three cars ahead clashed on the run to Surtees, forcing him to take to the grass in avoidance and then back into the pits to have the radiator cleared on the car.
That dropped him off the lead lap, and resulted in him finishing outside the top 20.
The tyre strategy also meant Daniel was ten on the less favoured hard tyre and at the back of the grid for the weekend finale, which limited his chances of fighting back into the points.
Showing strong pace compared to the other cars also on the hard tyre, Daniel would have to settle for 22nd place at the finish and whilst that meant he was unable to score overall championship points, he was able to come away from the weekend with a triple score in the Independents Championship.
“The weekend started really well with a positive Saturday, where we almost made it into Q2 and secured eighth on the grid,” he said. “We were still working to improve the car so we were in a good position going into race day, and confident of pushing for points.
“I feel a did a good job to be seventh on the road in race one but the car was slightly over the line at the start so we got a five second penalty. Even then, the fact we still took a top ten finish showed the pace in the car – particularly as I had a few issues with the tyres.
“We solved those issues for race two but I didn’t get the best of starts, and then got forced onto the grass in avoidance when coming back through the field, which was a shame. It was just unfortunate that our tyre strategy meant we had to run the tyre in the final race and whilst our pace was relative to the others on that tyre, we were never going to be able to make up much ground.
“Like Donington Park, the results don’t reflect the pace in the car but I know my time will come. I’ve just been out of luck so far but that hopefully change when we get to Snetterton.”
