Dan Lloyd pleased to win after “tricky day”

Dan Lloyd admitted he was “over the moon” after taking a seventh win of the TCR UK Championship season at Castle Combe.

The WestCoast Racing driver headed into the weekend with a 100 per cent record in the series but saw his run of success ended in qualifying where Ollie Taylor beat him to pole by just 0.003s.

Despite a poor start in race one, Lloyd fought his way back into contention at the front of the field and crossed the line first after overhauling Taylor on the final lap – only to then be given a time penalty for contact whilst making the move.

That ended his perfect record of success in TCR UK races, although Lloyd then bounced back with a lights-to-flag success in race two to maintain his healthy lead in the standings.

Lloyd’s win came despite the fact he was carrying 60kg of compensation weight this weekend.

“It’s been a bit of a tricky day so I’m over the moon with how I did that,” he said. “I pulled a gap and I was thinking about a Safety Car but I just kept pushing to pull the lead that I did. We’re carrying 60 kilos as well and to pull that sort of a gap – I was just really pleased with the way I drove – every lap was within two tenths.

“That’s what I’m aiming to do, to get that consistency. The Safety Car put something in the mix at the end, and it really caught me out as well. The lights went off coming into the pit pretty much, and I was like ‘right, first gear’, did a bit of a dummy, pretended to start weaving and as I weaved I just went and that’s how I got the gap.

“I did get caught out but I just thought very quick on my toes because I had an exact plan of what I was going to do when the safety car was coming in.”

A 15 point championship penalty as a result of the incident in the opening race means Lloyd’s lead in the standings has been cut to 82 points.