Daniel Lloyd delivered another superb performance in the Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup Saturday, 6th August, with a tremendous drive to second place - the third podium of his debut season in the category - on his first ever outing at Germany's Nurburgring.Not only did the round six result provide yet more silverware for the Huddersfield's racer's trophy cabinet, it also means the 19-year-old is now up to second place in the championship standings having pulled 14 points clear of Ola Nilsson.Getting up to speed quickly at the 3.6-kilometre track during pre-event practice on Friday, 5th August, Daniel lapped within half a second of experienced Scirocco R-Cup points leader Mateusz Lisowski with the fifth quickest time but improved to fourth fastest during this morning's all-important qualifying.For the race, rain threatened throughout but never really materialised much so the British ace had to work to look after his wet-weather tyres. Getting a good start, Daniel moved into the top three past Nilsson and immediately set about challenging second-placed Lisowski.Attacking twice on the opening lap, the second attempt at the chicane resulted in a lock-up and the delay did cost Daniel time. Even so, he held third place well and during the second half of the race the Volkswagen rookie managed to close in on the battle ahead between Lisowski and Aditya Patel.On lap 10, the West Yorkshire teenager had a look for second as Patel ran wide at the first corner but the move was rebuffed. Staying close to the second-year Scirocco R-Cup racer's tail, within just 0.6 seconds, he also wisely chose to retain one of his allocated 'push-to-pass' boosts for the final lap.Getting alongside Patel before the finish to grab second place, Daniel then utilised his remaining shot of additional horsepower to pull away and claim another memorable podium. Going into the four-week break ahead of next month's UK round at Brands Hatch 47 points behind Lisowski, with four races left in the 2011 season the championship is still very much alive."I'm really pleased with this result, past track knowledge was a definite help for a lot of the others this weekend and I didn't have that so to finish in second place is fantastic", he said, "Being on wets, I played it cool early on to look after the tyres and that paid off later in the race.
"I got up to third at the first corner and had two stabs at Mateusz (Lisowski), at the last chicane I tried to have a go but locked-up and that was it. The first lap was quite tough and had I got past him then it might have been different, we may have been able to go for the win. I'm still really happy though and over the moon to be back on the podium."As mentioned, next up for Daniel is easily the biggest event of the season - a return home to Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent for round seven of the 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup. Running as support to the DTM, the VW action will take place on Friday, 2nd September, and Saturday, 3rd September.
Provisional 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup Driver Standings (after Rd6):1st Mateusz Lisowski, 248pts; 2nd Daniel Lloyd, 201pts
