Lloyd secures his seventh win of 2018 campaign
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 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 After the race, Swift successfully appealed the decision and the penalty was withdrawn, which reinstated his first TCR UK podium result.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.
The next pair of TCR UK races will be at Oulton Park on Saturday 4th August.
