Daniel Lloyd took a hard fought fourth place finish, narrowly missing out on a second podium of the season, during round four of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Silverstone this weekend (May 30/31).
Although pleased to finish in a points-paying 4th place position during the three hour contest on the iconic British Grand Prix circuit, 23 year old Lloyd was left feeling frustrated at what could have been another strong top three result in the #2 Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3. Starting from fifth on the grid for the 150% points race; Lloyd’s team-mate Ahmad Al Harthy took the opening period in the Oman Racing Team Vantage and quickly took advantage of the difficult wet conditions to steal into second during the opening laps. An early pit-stop to change from wets to slicks under the safety car saw Al Harthy maintain his position for the remainder of his stint before handing over to Lloyd just before the halfway point. After fulfilling the 15 second pit-stop penalty from Rockingham, Lloyd re-joined the pack in 4th position before moving the Aston up into third as the race evolved. With a healthy lead ahead of Sims’ following BMW, Lloyd looked sure to secure a third place finish before a late safety car appearance with just over 30 minutes left to run bunched the cars back up and the lighter BMW was able to out-pace the Aston to take the final podium spot in the closing laps.“It’s a really frustrating result for us to be honest;” said Lloyd. “We were on for third and had the safety car not come out for the last half hour and bunched the cars up then we would have definitely been on the podium today.”“We had a good start to the race, Ahmad did a really good job in tricky conditions and managed to get us up into 2nd, the boys did a great job on three pit stops and I was happy with my stint but we’re just not able to compete on a level playing field at the moment;” Lloyd added.“The normal situation for the British GT is to have a pro and amateur driver combination but because of the way that the Championship has rated us as a silver/silver driver pairing this season the extra 70kg of weight is having a massive impact on our championship. The weight compensates fine for the amateur but is too much for the pro class; it’s basically the equivalent of carrying 100 litres of fuel and it’s making it incredibly hard to keep up with the other pro drivers out there.“To put it into context; I’m the same pace as Jonny Adam in the Blancpain Endurance Series yet 1.9 seconds off his pace in the British GT;” Lloyd continued.“The car was really good all weekend, the car set up was spot on and the team did a great job in the pit stops. We did everything right and had a good lead on Sims before the safety car but just didn’t really stand a chance at that point." Round four’s results see Lloyd move up into fifth place overall in the drivers’ standings and another class win in the Silver Cup rankings sees the Aston Martin Evolution Academy driver extend his lead to 33 points. The Avon Tyres British GT Championship now has a six-week break before heading to Belgium for its only non-UK event at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on July 10/11. Daniel and the Oman Racing Team will be back in action at the end of June when the Blancpain Endurance Series reconvenes for round three at the renowned Paul Ricard circuit in France on June 19/20.
