Dan Lloyd dominates Castle Combe practice

Dan Lloyd laid down a marker with a dominant performance in practice ahead of qualifying for the latest rounds of the TCR UK Championship at Castle Combe.

Having taken every pole and race win so far this season, the WestCoast Racing driver heads into the weekend with a healthy lead in the championship standings and followed up his pace-setting performance in the morning warm-up by again topping the times in practice.

Although not as quick as he had been earlier in the day, or indeed as Ollie Taylor had been during the Friday test, Lloyd was well clear of the chasing pack during the half hour long session posting a best time of 1m 07.084s at the wheel of his Volkswagen Golf GTI.

That was more than six tenths of a second clear of Taylor’s Pyro Motorsport-run Honda Civic Type-R, with the second WestCoast Volkwagen in the hands of Andreas Bäckman being the only other car able to get within a second of the pace.

Stewart Lines was an encouraging fourth in the first of the two Maximum Motorsport-run Cupra TCRs with team-mate Carl Swift climbing up the times in the final minutes to finish just behind in fifth spot.

Jessica Bäckman then completed the top six, less than a tenth of a second clear of Finlay Crocker.

As had been the case in the morning warm-up, only ten of the eleven entered cars this weekend were able to set times with Robert Gilmour – who suffered an ECU-related problem earlier in the day – once again being the only driver not to post a timed lap.

Neither Team BMR or Sean Walkinshaw Racing are present this weekend.