Daniel Lloyd opens his ambitious 2015 GT campaign over the upcoming Easter weekend (April 4-6) as the Avon Tyres British GT Championship gets underway at Cheshire’s Oulton Park circuit. Competing against one of the strongest grids in the history of the championship, Daniel returns to his ‘home’ track alongside new team-mate and 2014 runner up Ahmad Al Harthy in the #2 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 run by reigning Teams’ Champions Motorbase Performance.
Fresh from the official British GT media and test day at Brands Hatch last week, Daniel heads to Cheshire for one of the most challenging tracks on the championship schedule. “The test last week was really positive;” said Daniel. “The Aston’s pace was good but at the same time we were very productive with testing as well. I got on really well with the team and obviously Ahmad, and it’s great to have good team moral going into the first round.”
For Daniel and the Motorbase Performance squad, this weekend will be the first proper chance to measure the Vantage against its challengers. With 18 GT3 and 16 GT4 cars entered, the grid is packed with strong entries from nine different manufacturers and Monday's two one hour races promise to be fiercely-contested at a track where overtaking can be particularly tough.
“The Aston should perform really well at Oulton;” continued Daniel. “We had a test there a couple of weeks ago and we managed to set some competitive times. We have two 1 hour races so qualifying and a good pit stop will be really important to us this weekend.”
“Our aim this the weekend is to get some good points in the bag; I think it’s important to get a strong start to the season. The big goal is the championship this season, so to grab some good points at the start will be a good result. A trophy would be quite a nice way to start off the season as well though!”
After free practice and qualifying sessions on Saturday, the opening race of the 2015 season starts at 12 noon on Bank Holiday Monday with the second one hour race scheduled for 4pm. The action will be covered in an edited highlights programme on Channel 4 with live event timing available online at www.tsl-timing.com
