Photo: PSP Images

Ollie Taylor closes TCR UK points gap at Castle Combe

Ollie Taylor has closed the gap slightly to Dan Lloyd following the latest rounds of the TCR UK Championship at Castle Combe.

Lloyd took a lead of nearly 100 points into the weekend having enjoyed a perfect season prior to the fourth meeting of the campaign, with Taylor outscoring the championship leader for the first time in qualifying where he snared pole position in his Pyro Motorsport-run Honda.

Taylor looked well set to take his first win of the season in the opening race of the weekend before a late move from Lloyd saw him force his way through, with officials then investigating the incident post-race.

“What happened – it’s not supposed to be a contact sport – there’s a little bit of nudging and a little bit of budging but when you literally barge someone out to take the lead on the last lap – I don’t really think it’s on to be honest,” Taylor said afterwards.

“We’ll look into it, I’m sure they’ve got their side of the argument, we’ve certainly got our side. We’ve had the pace all weekend and we were looking but there we go.”

Stewards duly handed out a one second penalty to Lloyd for the incident, which handed victory to Taylor for the first time.

WestCoast would later appeal against the penalty but the decision was upheld, with Lloyd also given three penalty points on his licence – which incurred a 15 point championship penalty.

Whilst Lloyd then took victory in race two, second place for Taylor ensured that he ends the weekend having cut his rivals lead in the standings to 82 points.

“I think with us starting further back and Dan obviously starting on the front row that gave him a bit of a free ticket to get out into the lead which was always going to happen,” he said after the second race.

“I got quite a good start just off the line and then found myself battling with Lewis [Kent] and Carl [Swift] for quite some time and obviously Dan was just driving off into the distance so it was a good fun race from that point of view – having a good battle with Lewis and Carl.

“I felt I just had the pace but it’s not the easiest to overtake around here, and I was clocking Dan at various reference points around the circuit but I don’t think we were closing. The safety car came out and then disappeared without much notice and I thought we were having another lap so it caught me napping a little bit but Dan got the jump.”

Stewart Lines lost 20 championship points following his exclusion from race two, which drops him outside the top ten in the standings.

The series now heads for Oulton Park on 4 August for the next round.