Eurotech Racing’s Daniel Lloyd was delighted to qualify second on the grid for the opening British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Croft, his second front-row start in succession in the Honda Civic Type-R.
Lloyd, who returned to the series with Jeff Smith’s outfit at Thruxton and claimed Jack Sears Trophy honors at the first attempt, also qualified second at Oulton Park a fortnight ago and continues to impress as the respected GT racer and former KX Academy member finds his feet in the UK’s most competitive tin-top series.
His fastest time of 1:24.005 around the 2.13 mile Croft circuit was as close as the 32-strong field came to toppling Colin Turkington off his perch as the Ulsterman claimed Subaru’s second consecutive pole position. Ashley Sutton followed Lloyd in third by a mere 0.003 seconds, with Turkington’s team-mate Jason Plato and championship leader Sam Tordoff rounding out the top five.
A steady thirty-minute qualifying session for Lloyd came alive at the end as he pipped Sutton in the closing stages to secure second, something the 24 year-old Yorkshireman admits was a bit of a risk in attempting.
“We took a bit of a risk at the end of the session and we only really had one lap to move up the order.” he explained.
“It was great to really make that lap count. It’s mega to be on the front row for the second weekend on the bounce, particularly now that I’ve got a bit of experience of competing at the front in the BTCC.”
Despite his pleasure at the qualifying result, Lloyd also admitted he was mindful of improving his race technique based on the experience gained in Cheshire two weeks ago, when the characteristically brutal nature of the BTCC relegated him slightly further down the order come the final results.
“Racing is obviously another kettle of fish and I got caught out on a couple of occasions at Oulton, but I won’t be letting that happen again!”
The first race gets underway shortly after midday.