 Daniel Lloyd is celebrating tonight, Saturday, 31st May, after scorching to
the first victory of his car racing career during the 11th round of the 2008
Ginetta Junior Championship at Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire.
Starting the weekend in great style by leading the way during Friday
afternoon’s practice session, Lloyd qualified on the front row alongside
pole-sitter Dominic Pettit for today’s race and made a perfect getaway to lead
from lights to flag for a deserved debut win.
Joining the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Stars of Tomorrow
Scholarship Winner on the round 11 podium were runaway championship leader Dino
Zamparelli in second place and fellow title chaser Thomas Carnaby in
third.
“It’s a great feeling having won my first race in cars, I can’t believe it
really”, said Lloyd, “I did a couple of driving days four or five months ago at
Croft and I wasn’t quick at all – the difference is just phenomenal. I can’t
wait for tomorrow’s race now.”
While Lloyd led pretty much unchallenged throughout the eight lap
encounter, the battle behind for second place was colossal and any one of the
Zamparelli, Carnaby and George Richardson trio could have realistically ended
the race as runner-up.
Pettit was also in the mix early on but on lap two a problem saw him lose
ground out of the chicane and he slipped down the order, eventually climbing
back into a top five result at the finish. With the addition of his bonus point
for pole position, Pettit has closed to within just three points of Josh Hill in
the championship.
Into lap three, Zamparelli held second position just ahead of Richardson
while Carnaby started to produce fastest lap pace. Having set a new lap record
for the Ginetta Juniors on the second tour, Carnaby went quicker still the next
time around as he closed to within touching distance of the duo ahead.
Richardson mounted a challenge on Zamparelli as the train headed through
Barcroft on lap four but lost out to both Zamparelli and Carnaby. The latter ran
wide at Sunny In though so slipped back to fourth.
While the fight over third place intensified even further during the second
half of the race, Lloyd calmly continued his march to the chequered flag and
having opened up a four second gap by lap five, he went on to take a memorable
maiden win by 4.798 seconds.
On the penultimate lap Zamparelli ran slightly wide at Sunny In, kicking up
the dust, but just managed to hold on to second place. Carnaby then mounted a
challenge on Richardson for third at the hairpin which saw the pair run side by
side into the final lap.
Heading through Clervaux for the last time, Carnaby did brilliantly to
snatch third around the outside but Richardson attempted to serve up his own
version of the move at Tower Bend. Unsuccessful, Richardson fought all the way
to the end – contact between both drivers at the hairpin not seeing a change in
the order either.
Missing out on the podium by just half a second, Richardson was unlucky
not to make a return to the rostrum – but fourth place was much better than the
terrible luck he has endured of late, car damage ruling him out of the Thruxton
event a fortnight ago.
An additional boost, and extra championship point, for Richardson came by
way of a brand new lap record with a time of 1m 43.221 seconds (74.11mph) on lap
five.
Behind fifth placed Pettit, Hill finished in sixth position and Jake
Farndon enjoyed a great run from 11th on the grid to seventh at the flag. Alice
Powell rounded out the top eight, slipping a couple of places from her third row
grid slot, while Casey Watson climbed from 13th at the start to ninth at the
finish.
With Croft very much a ‘home’ venue for everyone at Ginetta Cars – the
company headquarters situated approximately 60 miles away at Garforth in Leeds –
this weekend’s race meeting is a very important one for the spectacular Ginetta
Juniors.
Round 12 of the 2008 championship is timetabled to take place at 17.20
tomorrow, Sunday, 1st June. Lloyd will start from pole position – his first
since graduating to cars at the start of the season – with Pettit alongside on
the front row, Richardson in third place and Zamparelli fourth.
Provisional 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after
Rd11)
1st Dino Zamparelli, 351pts; 2nd Thomas Carnaby, 258pts; 3rd
Daniel Lloyd, 218pts; 4th Josh Hill, 193pts; 5th Dominic Pettit, 190pts; 6th
Jake Farndon, 182pts
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