Daniel Lloyd secured his eighth podium of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB season at Rockingham on Sunday, 15th September, with second place in round 16 after beginning the event with his first ever category pole positions.Producing excellent pace from the off during pre-event testing at the Northamptonshire track, the Team Parker Racing driver led the way for the bulk of the second session and was just pipped to the best time of the day during the final couple of minutes – only missing out by a mere 0.083 seconds.Carrying great confidence into qualifying on Saturday, 14th September, the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Scholar didn’t disappoint with a sensational performance to secure his maiden pole position with a quickest lap of 1m19.664 seconds (87.66mph). His excellent consistency ensured a well-deserved double pole thanks to a second fastest time of 1m19.732 seconds.Although making a clean start to round 15 on Sunday morning, Daniel was nudged back to second on the first lap at Deene Hairpin by reigning champion Michael Meadows but remained close behind his rival and it wasn’t long before the lead battle became a three-way contest. Daniel did, though, lose the front splitter from his Porsche on the second tour which led to handling difficulties.Rory Butcher was able to take advantage to move into second on lap four and the order then stayed unchanged until lap 10 when Jonas Gelzinis attacked Daniel at Deene for third. Aiming to hit back immediately, he regained the place on the run out of Yentwood and the race then took a dramatic turn when Meadows crashed out of the lead – elevating Daniel into second.After a short Safety Car period, and with rain beginning to lightly fall, the action resumed but Daniel’s involvement in the race came to an untimely conclusion on lap 16 when his Porsche 911 GT3 slithered slightly wide through the Gracelands left-hander, not helped by the lack of front splitter, sending him into the gravel trap.Determined to make amends in round 16, which took place in blustery, cold conditions and with all drivers running on wet-weather tyres due to earlier rain, Daniel made a much better start than in the opening race but was edged back to second at Yentwood by Butcher.Visibly quicker than his rival, especially through the infield section from Chapman Curve, through Pif-Paf and into Gracelands, Daniel tried to mount an attack to re-take first place as he relentlessly applied pressure. As the track started to dry, though, the treaded Michelins began to fade and so the Team Parker driver settled for second place, just 1.5 seconds shy of the win.“I’m a little bit gutted I didn’t win the second race”, said Daniel, “It was a tough race, I was quicker in places than Rory [Butcher] but just couldn’t find a way back past him. My tyres started to go off from about lap 10, I started sliding about a lot then so couldn’t risk too much after that.“It’s good to finish off the weekend on the podium, overall we haven’t had the results we wanted, especially starting on pole for both races, but there are still a lot of positives to take away. Qualifying was obviously the best performance we’ve delivered all season, hopefully we can carry that forward to the next round.”Silverstone National Circuit in Northamptonshire will host the penultimate two races of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB season, rounds 17 and 18, just a fortnight from now on 28th/29th September.

2013 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship Standings (after Rd16):4th Daniel Lloyd, 185pts