BRINGS POINTS FINISH
Team Pyro’s Daniel Lloyd enjoyed an action-packed ELF Renault Clio Cup race debut at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit, Saturday, 4th April, which culminated in a hard-fought top 14 finish on his maiden competitive appearance in the category.
After qualifying on the fringe of his target top 10 this morning with a lap of 52.767 seconds (81.77mph), the 17-year-old Huddersfield racer headed into the opening round of the season hopeful of remaining close to the top 10 and this he achieved with a determined drive.
Right in the thick of the action throughout the 20-lap encounter on the Kent venue’s tight and twisty 1.2-mile Indy Circuit, Daniel battled hard with a whole host of experienced Clio Cup racers, including Alex Osborne, Carl Bradley and David Dickenson, before emerging with a 14th place result and also as the second highest placed rookie driver.
“That was a really hard-fought race but I enjoyed it and we came away really pleased with our pace, I was just three 10ths of a second off my experienced team-mate Phil Glew who won the race”, said Daniel after round one, “The car felt good but it’s so difficult to overtake on the Indy Circuit, the key is to qualify as well as possible and to make up some ground at the start.
“My lap times were quicker than several of the cars ahead of me but there’s only really one racing line at Brands so even if you’re faster it’s difficult to get by. Tomorrow we start from 10th on the grid and if I can get away from the line well, I’m sure our pace will let us fight for an improved result.”
With light rain in the air during the half-hour qualifying session this morning, track conditions were slightly unpredictable in the early stages but Daniel ran strongly throughout and his best lap of 52.767 seconds was only three 10ths of a second away from pole position, such is the competitiveness of the ELF Renault Clio Cup.
For the second round of the season tomorrow afternoon, Sunday, 5th April, the West Yorkshire star will line-up on the fifth row of the grid thanks to a very consistent qualifying performance today, his second best lap coming with a time of 52.852 seconds.
Scheduled to begin at approximately 13.35 tomorrow, the second Clio Cup race of the weekend is also set to be screened live on ITV4 as part of the station’s marathon six-hour broadcast from Brands Hatch. Armchair enthusiasts will be able to tune-in to the action at channel 28 on Freeview, through cable channel 117 and at channel 120 on Sky Digital.