Photo: PSP Images

Dan Lloyd doubles-up at season opener at Silverstone

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Dan Lloyd has won the second race of the weekend at Silverstone, stamping his authority for the 2018 TCR UK Touring Car Championship’s drivers’ title, after driving through from eighth to the lead in five laps in his WestCoast Racing Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.

Stewart Lines started from pole position in his Maximum Motorsport Cupra TCR, but lost out at the start to Andreas Bäckman, with the 22-year-old Swede blasting through the gap between Lines and the other front row starting Cupra of Olli Kangas to lead the way into Copse.

Kangas was up to second, while Race 1 rivals Dan Lloyd in the second WestCoast Racing Volkswagen and Aiden Moffat in his Alfa Romeo Giulietta were fast moving through the field, with the two drivers up to third and fourth by the end of the first lap from eighth and ninth on the grid.

Lloyd passed Kangas’ LMS Racing Cupra on lap two and closed down on his team-mate and race leader Bäckman, overtaking the Swedish driver at the end of lap five down the start-finish straight.

Bäckman was then passed by Moffat’s Alfa Romeo on lap 11, but the 21-year-old Scotsman wasn’t able to pull away, with the two drivers then entering a race-long battle, with Bäckman chasing Moffat’s tail for the remainder of the race.

The two Honda Civic FK2 TCRs of Ollie Taylor and Howard Fuller moved ahead of Kangas’ Cupra, while Lewis Kent dropped back down the order as he had in Race 1 with a turbo issue on his Essex & Kent Hyundai i30 N TCR.

Andreas’ sister Jessica Bäckman made her way past Darelle Wilson’s Vauxhall Astra at Copse on lap 13 and then passed Stewart Lines’ Cupra three laps later to put her behind Kangas.

Andreas Bäckman was keeping Moffat honest until the final stages of the race, until Moffat then slowed out of second with three laps to go with a technical problem.

Lloyd went on to win by 4.7 seconds ahead of Bäckman with Ollie Taylor again taking the final spot on the podium.

Lloyd now leads the TCR UK series on 91 points, 25 points clear of Taylor, with Bäckman third, three points behind.

The second round of the TCR UK series takes place at Knockhill on 13th May.