Car racing rookie Daniel Lloyd has moved into the top three in the 2008
Ginetta Junior Championship standings after securing a brace of consistent
results at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire over the weekend, 17th/18th May – the
event marking the 16-year-old’s debut race outing at the UK’s fastest
track.
Driving the Tockwith Motorsport-run British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC)
Stars of Tomorrow scholarship car, the Huddersfield teenager headed into
Sunday’s action just six points adrift of Josh Hill in the driver standings and
with a great opportunity to move ahead of the son of 1996 Formula One World
Champion Damon Hill.
After making a good start to Sunday lunchtime’s 10th round of the season,
moving into fifth position from sixth on the grid, Daniel soon made his way into
the top four after passing Fergus Walkinshaw – another young driver with F1
connections, the son of former Arrows boss Tom – on lap three.
As the race progressed towards mid-distance, Daniel managed to pull away
from his pursuers but having been caught up in his battle with Walkinshaw for
several laps it had allowed the top three to pull out what proved to be an
insurmountable gap.
Nonetheless, a strong fourth place result – added to sixth position during
Saturday afternoon’s ninth round of the season – means the Huddersfield Grammar
School student is now seven points clear of Hill in the championship title
race.
Commenting on Sunday’s action, Daniel said: “I didn’t have a great start
and for the first two or three laps I was battling with Fergus which allowed the
top three to break away from us. When I finally pulled out a gap, it was too
late to do anything about trying to get on the podium.
“The best thing to come out of the weekend is that we’ve moved ahead of
Josh in the championship. If it wasn’t for that then I would have been a bit
disappointed as I would have liked to have been on the podium this weekend.
You’ve got to look at the bigger picture though, being third in the championship
is good news.”
Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire will host the 11th and 12th rounds of the
Ginetta Junior series just a fortnight from now on 31st May/1st June. As perhaps
the nearest to a ‘home’ race meeting Daniel will have this year, the Ginetta
Junior ace is greatly looking forward to adding to his podium tally at the
Darlington venue.
Provisional 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after
Rd10)
1st Dino Zamparelli, 320pts; 2nd Thomas Carnaby, 232pts;
3rd Daniel Lloyd, 183pts
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