LLOYD WINS EXCITING TCR UK OPENER AT KNOCKHILL

WestCoast Racing’s Daniel Lloyd put in a flawless drive to take victory in the opening TCR UK Series race at Knockhill, as Pyro Motorsport’s Ollie Taylor and the BMR Autoglym Acamdemy’s Josh Price completed the podium after a thrilling scrap.

Lloyd started the race from pole position and never looked back as he built up a comfortable margin early in the race, whilst the pack behind him scrapped for position in a thrilling race.

Taylor had got the jump on Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat at the start, before he slid wide in his Honda Civic on lap six and dropped to fourth, releasing Moffat to try to reduce Lloyd’s then six-second gap.

However, Moffat’s charge came to an abrupt end at the mid-point of the race when he suffered from a driveshaft failure, elevating WestCoast Racing’s Andreas Bäckman into second.

A mid-race safety car period was required in order to retrieve the beached Hyundai i30 N of Lewis Kent (Essex & Kent Motorsport) who had gone off at McIntyres whilst running in 11th, and when the race resumed on lap 22 Andreas Bäckman made an unforced error into the first turn, locking his brakes and handing second to Taylor.

Bäckman sought to re-pass the Honda two laps later but contact between the pair gave Price the opportunity to move into second. The BMR driver would only hold the position for two laps though, and Taylor re-passed with just five laps to run and the podium positions would remain unchanged thereafter.

Fourth went to Bäckman, ahead of Sean Walkinshaw in fifth, who is making his TCR UK race début for his team of the same name this weekend.

Derek Palmer finished the race as Laser Tools Racing’s sole remaining Alfa Romeo in sixth after a relatively uneventful drive for the Scot, ahead of Jessica Bäckman (WestCoast Racing) in seventh.

Darelle Wilson (DW Racing) was eighth, having received a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits in the race, although his race ended with an accident with Finlay Crocker (Verizon Connect Racing) at McIntyres bend on the final lap, despite the latter running a lap down. Crocker had earlier suffered from several spins during the race and was a lap down as a result.

With title hopeful Moffat recording his second retirement of the season, the Scottish racer will be looking to bounce back in the second race of the day at 14:25, having proven his pace with the fastest lap of the race.

The race will once again be streamed live over the TCR UK website, the TCR Hub, the championships social media channels and through MotorsportTV’s on-demand online platform and Motor Trend On Demand.

Dan Lloyd (1st): “There’s been quite a few complications, but to be honest I deserved to be there, it was the right thing I was there and I’m glad it happened in the end. Once I got there, I don’t really get nerves, but by the end of it all with the adrenaline I was fully shaking! I just needed to do the job and made sure that I did it.

“I was so revved up at the start – I was angry! I put so much heat into the tyres that I was borderline chucking the car off on the warm-up lap to get as much heat in as possible. That’s what allowed me to open up that gap at the start whilst it was still slippery. Then it sort of evened out, and Aiden was matching my pace, so when the safety car came out I was gutted, but then I heard he had stopped which was unfortunate. I don’t wish that on anyone but it made my life easier at the end of the race.

“We’re going round-by-round at the moment; we need more support to carry on the season and these are the types of results we need to keep on going and get that support, so it’s really good.”

Ollie Taylor (2nd): “Second place – that was good; it was very eventful! It was busy and you there was so much going on, so you had to prepare yourself for anything: action, defending, attacking, safety cars and accidents.

“I had a couple of offs myself and was just trying to push it and be on the edge. It was good and I’m happy with the result.”

Josh Price (3rd): “We went from starting from P4 to P5 to last. It’s as much as we could have hoped for. I think if I had used my head a little more we could have kept second, and possibly pushed on if I had been more awake under the safety car, but I wasn’t!

“Ollie was good and his pace was good. It was easy from me to gauge off him where his pace was. It’s been a good starting point for us as a team and it’s been a good relief for the boys who worked really hard yesterday to get another engine in the car to be here today.”