Daniel Lloyd produced a battling performance on track at Snetterton (20/21 May) to pick up his first silverware of the 2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season. 

The Huddersfield racer headed into the weekend on the back of a triple points score at Brands Hatch in the previous meeting, and hopeful of strengthening his position in the top three of the Independents’ standings. 

Quickest of the Team HARD-run Cupra Leons throughout free practice, Lloyd qualified 15th on the grid for the opening race of the weekend – despite being one of several drivers to experience a trip off track due to oil dropped on the circuit at Coram. 

That left him in a solid position going into the opening race, where Lloyd elected to run the less favourable hard compound tyre at the first opportunity. 

Bolting on the soft tyre for race two, Lloyd was in fine form as he made up four places on the opening lap before fighting ahead of Aron Taylor-Smith mid-way through the race to take a first top-ten finish of the campaign - and the Independents’ class win. 

More points were there for the taking in race three on the medium tyre but contact from Taylor-Smith mid-way through lap one saw Lloyd onto the grass, where he managed to regain control and re-joined at the back of the field. 

Getting his head down, Lloyd charged back through the pack and looked set to recover into the points until contact dropped him back to 17th place. 

Ahead of the next round at Thruxton, Lloyd sits 17th overall and third in the Independents’ Trophy. 

"Overall, it’s been a really positive weekend and we have shown strong pace with the car," said Lloyd, "We were a bit in the dark coming into the weekend with the tyres, as we only had a little bit of running on the soft and didn’t know what the hard tyre would be like at all.” 

"I feel we did a good job to hold position with the hard tyre and then made-up ground with the soft, and I think the speed was really strong on the medium tyre. I really fancied us for a top-six finish with the pace in the car, and without the contact on lap one, I’m sure we’d have got one.” 

"I had a new engineer this weekend in the shape of Tom Hunt, who was previously with Team Dynamics, and I feel we did a mega job with the car. We’ve taken a big step forward, and it’s great to now be in a position where we can score our first Independents’ win of the season.”