TO SECURE OULTON PARK TOP SIXBritish Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Stars of Tomorrow Scholarship Winner Daniel Lloyd endured a very difficult 15th round of the 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship at Oulton Park Island Circuit in Cheshire yesterday afternoon, Saturday, 26th July – although a battling performance against off-set steering netted the 16-year-old a deserved top six finish.Disappointed with his starting position of seventh on the grid, after posting a lap of 1m47.940 seconds (74.24mph) during the earlier 15-minute qualifying session, Daniel made a good start to round 15 and immediately challenged championship leader Dino Zamparelli on the run down the Avenue to Cascades for the first time.On entry to Cascades, the Huddersfield ace produced an outstanding move up the inside to take sixth place – a manoeuvre even more noteworthy considering the fact Daniel’s car had severely off-set steering which compromised his performance throughout the eight lap race.Even though fighting an ill-handling car, Daniel continued his march forward by taking fifth place from Fergus Walkinshaw at Knickerbrook Chicane, although the latter did manage to move back ahead before the end of the opening lap.Running in sixth position for the next couple of tours, the Tockwith Motorsport racer then produced a stunning pass on Walkinshaw at Knickerbrook once again to grab fifth but as he also looked to move ahead of fourth placed Dominic Pettit, contact saw Daniel pitched into a spin.Down in 10th position as the race entered lap five, Daniel mounted a determined fightback and by lap six he was back up into the top eight. As the race entered the final tour Daniel, who had been putting seventh placed George Richardson under a lot of pressure for the previous lap or so, made a successful move at Knickerbrook for what became sixth place after a spin for Walkinshaw.Although contact from Richardson did occur as he tried to defend, Daniel managed to continue while his rival ended his race on the exit of the chicane. Coming home in sixth place wasn’t what Daniel wanted but the outcome could have been much worse.Bearing in mind the problems he had with steering, Daniel still managed to post a fastest lap of 1m 47.731 seconds, less than two 10ths of a second outside the best managed by pole-sitter and race winner Thomas Carnaby. All in all, the West Yorkshire ace served up an excellent effort but is hoping for much more during round 16 tomorrow.“I’m really disappointed not to have been on the podium today”, said Daniel, “The car just wasn’t fast enough in qualifying, it slid around quite a lot and so we couldn’t get the sort of time we wanted. We made some changes before the race and the car felt better, but I had the problem with the steering so that compromised the entire race."At least we’ve scored a few points today. It’s not what we wanted but hopefully tomorrow will be better. Even though we weren’t able to challenge as we wanted in qualifying for whatever reason, my pace in the race was a match for the leaders so that’s given me more confidence for Sunday afternoon’s race.”

The 16th round of the 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship is timetabled to take place at around 16.20 today, Sunday, 27th July, and will be contested over eight laps. Daniel will start the race from seventh on the grid.Provisional 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after Rd15):1st Dino Zamparelli, 395pts; 2nd Thomas Carnaby, 378pts; 4th Daniel Lloyd, 279pts