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Ollie Taylor keeps TCR UK title fight alive with Race 2 win as Dan Lloyd retires

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Ollie Taylor has won a dramatic second TCR UK race of the weekend at Croft as championship leader Dan Lloyd failed to finish.

Pyro Motorsport’s Taylor led from lights-to-flag to claim a comfortable victory from team-mate Finlay Crocker, who withstood race-long pressure from the WestCoast Racing Honda of Andreas Bäckman to secure his maiden TCR UK podium.

Taylor’s win, combined with Lloyd’s first retirement of the season, means the championship will go down to the wire at Donington Park next month, with just 31 points separating the pair.

Taylor got his Honda Civic Type R FK8 off the line from pole position with ease and headed Crocker into Clervaux for the first time. Race 1 winner Bäckman maintained third place, while sister Jessica ran too deep, forcing her to cede fourth to Lloyd.

Lloyd only made it as far as the chicane however before he understeered his Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR onto the grass and into retirement. The car appeared to be unsettled over the kerbs before slewing off track, hurting Lloyd’s title charge in the process.

The race from then on was largely processional as Taylor maintained his healthy margin over Crocker.

Scotsman Crocker battled hard with Bäckman, with the Swede unable to find a gap big enough for his Honda Civic Type R FK2 to sneak into second.

Crocker held on to the claim his maiden podium in the series by just over half a second from Bäckman, while Jessica came home a distant fourth in the second WestCoast VW Golf.

Stewart Lines finished fifth in his Maximum Motorsport Cupra TCR, but was nowhere near the leading quartet out front.

Essex and Kent Hyundai i30 N TCR driver Lewis Kent had another frustrating race after clutch problems robbed him of a finish in the opening encounter.

Kent, who started from the rear after his team elected to take the car out of parc fermé to repair the car after Race 1,  ran fourth early on, having got the jump on Jessica Bäckman at Hawthorn, but had to pit with a puncture two laps later.

He managed to get back out and, on fresh rubber, set the fastest lap before pitting again. He was the last of the classified runners in sixth.

Darelle Wilson failed to start the race after a broken steering rack sustained in his Race 1 contact with Kent.