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Just
a week after his dramatic debut at Brands Hatch, 16-year old Daniel Lloyd was back
behind the wheel of his BRDC Stars of Tomorrow Scholarship-supported G20 – at Cadwell
Park –aiming to build on his impressive start to this year’s Ginetta Junior season,
where he took an 11th and 5th position during the
previous weekend’s racing.
“It’s a big
disadvantage if you’ve not been there before” Lloyd said candidly
after Timed Qualifying and referring to the fact that he’d never even seen the Lincolnshire
circuit before, let alone driven a car round it. Still, he managed to record
the 10th fastest time which illustrates the big strides he’s already
taken in this, his rookie year in cars.
In
the first race, the Tockwith Motorsport driver got a great start and was up to
7thth
but an accident brought the red flags out and the race was stopped. Taking the
drivers’ track positions from the previous lap to create the grid for the
re-start, Daniel found himself back in 7th place but didn’t stay
there for long - “I’d got up to 6th
but span at the bottom of ‘the Mountain’ and dropped to last. I got the car
going again and came through to finish 10th. Apart from the spin, it
wasn’t a bad drive” he said wryly. place by the end of the first lap. One tour later and he was 6
With
the driver’s second best qualifying lap-time deciding their grid slot for the 2ndth
place and bearing down on Damon Hill’s son, Josh.
race, Daniel found himself a little further back, on the sixth row. As the
lights went out, he rocketed off the line and sliced past two drivers – going in
between them. Lloyd then passed another two cars heading into the first corner,
‘Coppice’. On lap 2, he again made up places to find himself in 6
Suddenly,
hailstones began to bounce off the bonnet and windscreen and the track quickly
became slippery. “To be honest, I backed
off when it started to snow and hail” Daniel explained with his customary
honesty. “I’d not driven the car in those
conditions before and decided that taking it easy was better than binning it.”
It
was a sensible and mature decision. As others began to get into difficulties, the
Huddersfield teenager calmly waited for the
track to dry before picking his pace up again. “Once the hail stopped, the track dried pretty quickly and I ended up
matching the leaders’ times” he said with some satisfaction afterwards.
Holding onto his place to the flag gave him more valuable championship points
and moved him up the order to 7th overall.
“I’m enjoying the
experience more now. I’ve realised that, unlike karts where I wanted to win
every race I entered, I’m not expected to in Ginettas. This is my learning
year, so the pressure’s off. I’m quite pleased with my performance at Cadwell.
Okay, it was a shame about the spin (in the first race) but the team said I did really, really well
in the second race. It was a nice, steady weekend.”
Daniel
and the Ginetta Junior championship rejoins the British Touring Car bill at
Rockingham Speedway, in Northamptonshire this weekend. Watch ITV4 from 12:30 to
see Daniel in action live on your TV.
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