Daniel Lloyd battled hard in some of the most challenging conditions of his career to secure three solid points finishes from the latest rounds of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season.
The Huddersfield-racer headed for the Snetterton circuit looked to bounce back from a trying weekend at Knockhill two weeks earlier, where he had been unable to score at the wheel of his EXCELR8 Motorsport-run Hyundai.
Free practice looked promising for Daniel as he looked to return to the front-running form he had displayed in winning twice at Croft prior to the summer break, with the #123 Hyundai setting the fourth fastest time.
However, in sweltering conditions on track, qualifying would end with Daniel in twelfth place on the grid and with work to do on race day.
Running in traffic in the opening race, Daniel was forced to contend with managing his tyres in the high temperatures and also trying to ensure that the engine in the car didn’t overheat from running too close to the car in front, meaning he would end the race where he started in twelfth place.
Briefly running inside the top ten in the early laps of race two, Daniel found himself in eleventh spot behind the Vauxhall of Ash Hand; ironically the very car he had raced last season.
Although quicker on track than his rival, Daniel was unable to find a way through and had to settle for eleventh place – just missing out on the reverse grid draw for the weekend finale.
The early race squabbles in race three would work against Daniel as he lost places before recovering back through to twelfth at the finish to secure a hat-trick of points finishes that allows him to retain eighth place in the championship standings.
Next up is a return to Thruxton, where Daniel battled to three solid top ten finishes earlier in the season.
“It’s been a tough weekend and I have to give massive credit to the team because they have worked really hard on horrendous conditions with the heat to give me a really good car,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we went the wrong way with the set-up on Saturday and although it looked good in practice when we were in P4, it soon became clear in qualifying that we’d got it wrong and P12 was always going to be a difficult place to start from.
“We reverted back to a base set-up overnight which was much better, but in that heat, it was so difficult to try and follow another car as you didn’t want the engine to overheat and you had to manage the tyres all the time. In race two in particular, I think we had the pace on Ash, but every time I got close to him the engine started to overheat and I had to back off as I wasn’t going to risk it for P11.
“It’s a bit frustrating to have a weekend where you have to just sit there in position, but there hasn’t been a huge amount of overtaking this weekend because of the conditions.
“However, we’ve been sensible in our approach and have got three points finishes, which is what we needed after Knockhill. We can now go to Thruxton and try and benefit from the fact I’ve already had a weekend there under my belt so we have a solid base to start from.”
If you missed it prior to the weekend, the latest installment of Daniel’s behind the scenes video series covering his 2022 campaign can be viewed below on the DLR TV Youtube channel.
