Dan Lloyd avoids carnage to take the first race victory at Knockhill
Dan Lloyd made the most of a perfect start from pole position and carnage behind him to remain undefeated in the TCR UK Touring Car Championship with victory in the first race at Knockhill.
The WestCoast Racing driver was never threatened throughout, took a comfortable win from Pyro Motorsport’s Ollie Taylor by two seconds.
Confusion had reigned ahead of the start as four drivers were demoted to the back of the grid after being excluded from qualifying for allegedly being underweight.
This meant pole-sitter Lloyd was stripped of top spot, while WestCoast team-mate Jessica Bäckman, Lewis Kent and Derek Palmer Jr also received penalties.
These penalties were then rescinded while the cars were on the grid, with Lloyd reclaiming his pole position.
From the dry side of the track, Lloyd made the perfect getaway to lead into the first corner as fellow front row starter Aiden Moffat lost second place to Taylor’s Honda Civic.
Moffat re-took second from Taylor when the Honda driver lost the rear of the car at Butcher’s, but retired at mid-distance with a driveshaft failure, leaving his Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR stranded.
Taylor struggled for grip throughout the race and understeered wide at Clark’s to drop him behind Andreas Bäckman’s WestCoast Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR.
He got the position back after the safety car intervention, brought out to recover the Hyundai i30 N TCR of Lewis Kent, who went straight on at McIntyres.
Bäckman and Taylor were embroiled in a ferocious battle for second but each undid their hard work when the Swedish driver lunged up the inside of Taylor at the Hairpin. The resulting contact enabled Josh Price to move into second.
Taylor eventually re-passed Price to claim runner-up position ahead of Price, while Bäckman finished fourth.
Overnight rain made the track precarious for most of the field, with Finlay Crocker suffering the most. The Scotsman took to the gravel on no fewer than five times during the 30-minute race, and eventually ended up out of the race on the final lap after contact with Darelle Wilson’s Vauxhall Astra TCR.
Wilson, who endured a trip through the Clark’s gravel trap before receiving a five second time penalty for exceeding track limits, came up to lap Crocker approaching McIntyres when the pair made contact.
Sean Walkinshaw finished a credible fifth on his debut in his Honda Civic Type R FK2 TCR, ahead of Aiden Moffat Racing’s Derek Palmer Jr.
Jessica Bäckman endured a difficult race, losing her rear bumper on her way to seventh, while Darelle Wilson was the last of the classified runners in eighth.
Race 2 takes place at 14:25 BST with Sean Walkinshaw set to start from pole in his Honda Civic.
