Knockhill Racing circuit failed to deliver the thrills for Huddersfield’s Daniel Lloyd during Rounds 13, 14 and 15 of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship, with an early retirement in the opening race of the weekend derailing his podium hopes.
Marking the midway point of the 2021 season, the fifth meeting of the year headed North of the border, to Fife’s picturesque Knockhill circuit.
Looking to capitalise on his respectable P12 grid spot, Lloyd made a strong start off the line in race one. Unfortunately, the opening contest was short-lived when a front suspension failure on lap four fired the 29-year-old off-track, with the #123 Astra sustaining heavy damage and unable to finish.
Following an impressive rebuild against the clock by the Power Maxed Racing crew, Lloyd joined race two from the back of the grid. Making steady progress as the laps unfolded, the Yorkshireman had worked his way up to P20 with just two laps remaining before being caught up in an on-track incident. Dropping back down the order, he managed to re-join the race – eventually crossing the line in P26.
By far his best performance of the day came in the weekend closer. Running on the medium option tyre for race three, Lloyd quickly found his rhythm with the Astra during the safety car interrupted contest and picked his way through the pack on the notoriously narrow track to claim 18th at the final flag.
“That was a tough weekend,” reflected Lloyd. “We were due a bit of bad luck at some point I guess, but it all arrived in one go in Scotland!
“I got a decent start in the first race and then something failed on the front-right upright as I was going through the chicane. I hit the barrier fairly hard and I thought that was the weekend over, to be honest. The team did a mega job to repair the car in a really short space of time and get me back out for race two, so a massive thank you to them.
“For unknown reasons, we’re still struggling with engine issues I was down on speed in race two even compared to myself in the opening race. I made it up to P20 from last, but then with two laps to go, I got caught up with someone else’s incident and got hit off the track. That put me at the back again.
“The engine was better in race three and we made it to 18th which was respectable. Sadly it was too little too late to salvage the weekend. On the positive side, we had another great weekend with guests from Abracs joining us again, and we made some improvements and steps forward with the car. We’ll come back fighting at Thruxton.”
The weekend’s results leave Daniel in 12th place in the Independent Drivers' standings, with the Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing Team sixth in the Independent Teams’ championship. The BTCC returns for rounds 16, 17 and 18 at the fastest track on the calendar, Thruxton in Hampshire on August 28-29.
