LLOYD TAKES TCR UK WIN #7 IN RACE 2 AT CASTLE COMBE

WestCoast Racing’s Daniel Lloyd won a dramatic reverse-grid race at Castle Combe to take his seventh TCR UK victory this season, ahead of Pyro Motorsport’s Ollie Taylor.

Lloyd started the race from pole by virtue of non-starter Darelle Wilson, who was forced to withdraw from today’s races after heavy damage to his Vauxhall Astra in qualifying. The standings leader faced early pressure from Carl Swift (Maximum Motorsport), who made a great start to challenge Lloyd around the outside at Quarry Corner on the opening lap, before settling for second for the remainder of the lap.

Race one winner Taylor made progress on the opening lap, and eventually hunted down Lewis Kent and then Carl Swift to take the chequered flag in second position, 1.7 seconds adrift of Lloyd. By the time Taylor made it to second, Lloyd enjoyed a seven second advantage, which was then nullified by a late safety car period following contact between Jessica Bäckman and Stewart Lines at Camp Corner. The pair were battling for fifth and sixth position when they tangled at the last turn and made heavy contact with the barrier, necessitating the safety car. Lines was later disqualified from the race and received four penalty points for the incident.

When the field returned to green flag racing, Lloyd got the jump on Taylor while Swift held station in third position. The CUPRA racer finished the race third but initially received a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits, dropping him down to fifth. After the race, Swift successfully appealed the decision and the penalty was withdrawn, which reinstated his first TCR UK podium result.

DPE Motorsport’s Derek Palmer secured his best result so far this season with fourth in his Alfa Romeo Giulietta, while his teammate Robert Gilmour did not start either race this weekend due to an ongoing ECU problem.

Dan Lloyd (1st) said: “It’s been a bit of a tricky day so I’m over the moon with how I did that. I pulled a gap and I was thinking about a safety car but I just kept pushing to pull the lead that I did. We’re carrying 60 kilos as well and to pull that sort of a gap – I was just really pleased with the way I drove – every lap was within two tenths. 

“That’s what I’m aiming to do, to get that consistency. The safety car put something in the mix at the end, and it really caught me out as well. The lights went off coming into the pit pretty much, and I was like ‘right, first gear,’ did a bit of a dummy, pretended to start weaving and as I weaved I just went and that’s how I got the gap.

“I did get caught out but I just thought very quick on my toes because I had an exact plan of what I was going to do when the safety car was coming in.”

Ollie Taylor (2nd) said: “I think with us starting further back and Dan obviously starting on the front row that gave him a bit of a free ticket to get out into the lead which was always going to happen.

“I got quite a good start just off the line and then found myself battling with Lewis [Kent] and Carl [Swift] for quite some time and obviously Dan was just driving off into the distance so it was a good fun race from that point of view – having a good battle with Lewis and Carl. I felt I just had the pace but it’s not the easiest to overtake around here, and I was clocking Dan at various reference points around the circuit but I don’t think we were closing.

“The safety car came out and then disappeared without much notice and I thought we were having another lap so it caught me napping a little bit but Dan got the jump.”

Carl Swift (3rd) said: “I took my onboard camera footage to show to the Clerk of the Course straight after the race and he agreed with my view that the penalty shouldn’t have been applied.

“I’m delighted to have scored my first TCR UK podium – hopefully it’s the first of many. I really want to thank everyone who’s helped me so far, particularly all the lads who work so hard to get the car out on the grid. I’m really looking forward to the final three race weekend of the year as I really like Oulton Park, Croft is my favourite circuit and Donington is my home track!”

The next pair of TCR UK races will be at Oulton Park on Saturday 4th August.