Daniel Lloyd was denied a podium finish in the world’s toughest GT race when his Oman Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 was forced to retire with just three hours to run in the Total 24 hours of Spa (25/26 July).
The 67th running of the famous round-the-clock race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium is an incredibly tough race and attracted a stellar entry of GT cars for round four of the Blancpain Endurance Series. Lloyd and the Oman Racing Team faced a formidable entry of 59 of the world’s leading endurance drivers and teams. Daniel was sharing the driving with Jonny Adam, Ahmad Al Harthy and young Australian racer Jonathan Venter. The 2015 event was Lloyd’s second run in the Total 24 hours of Spa, but the 23-year old missed his chance to compete on track last year when an accident put the car out early in the race. The race build-up and qualifying went very well and Lloyd showed his speed with strong laps in qualifying as they slotted into a top 10 position in the Pro-Am category. Typical ever-changing weather conditions in the Ardennes Mountains made tyre choice difficult at the start of the race, but the team made some good calls. However, another sudden change of weather threw the race into turmoil and the team had to bring Lloyd back into the pits once more to change tyres. Then, a safety car period added further uncertainty and they dropped to 39th place.“The tyre calls should have paid off,” said Lloyd. “But with some strong and consistent driving from all four drivers we worked our way back to tenth overall and fourth in Pro-Am. To survive those conditions and keep moving up was great. At one time I was aquaplaning in fifth gear and some of the works cars crashed out in the conditions.”Unfortunately, just as it seemed that a place on the Pro-Am podium was within their grasp, the car hit trouble as a section of the floor worked loose. That cost time in the pits but then an engine drive belt problem finally forced the Aston Martin out of the race after 444 laps and with just three hour left to run on Sunday afternoon. Although the belt could have been replaced, the engine was not fit to continue.“I was devastated with the end result,” said Lloyd. “It was a really tough race and the Motorbase guys did a great job with the car. I learnt a lot during the race and there are some real positives to take away from this incredible event.”Lloyd was driving when the car stopped on track and Daniel worked hard to try and fix the problem using the tools carried in the car. The regulations permit the driver to work on the car, but team personnel cannot touch the car outside the pit area. Team boss David Bartrum was impressed with Lloyd’s effort to get the car back into the race. “Seeing Daniel working at the side of the track trying to fix the car set an example to all GT drivers. He never gave up trying to get the car to the finish,” said Bartrum. Lloyd will be back in the car this weekend (1/2 August) to resume his challenge in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship for round six of the season, a two-hour race on the fabulous Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch. Free practice starts at 10am on Saturday, with qualifying from 4.25pm. The two-hour race will start at 1.30pm on Sunday (August 2). A full timetable for the race weekend can be found at: http://www.brandshatch.co.uk/media/4041570/f4_gt.pdf Live television coverage of the race will be screened on Motors TV in a programme starting at 1.10pm on Sunday. Motors TV can be found on the following channels: Sky 447, Virgin 545 and Freeview 71 & 240. The race highlights TV programme will run on Channel 4 starting at 7am on Sunday 9 August and will be repeated at 2am on Wednesday 12 August.
