BTC Norlin Racing’s Dan Lloyd was pleased to “pay back” his team with a top five qualifying result following an engine change between free practice sessions yesterday [29 September].
Lloyd put in a time of 1:30.775 to place him fifth in race one, behind a quintet of Hondas, with both Eurotech Racing and Halfords Yuasa Racing Hondas ahead of him.
The Croft race winner told TouringCars.Net he was very happy to be able to reward the BTC Norlin squad with a strong qualifying result after an engine change at the end of free practice one.
“I’m really pleased, the guys have done a lot of hard work today so it’s nice to pay them back with a good result,” said Lloyd.
“We’re well in the money there, it was a good lap so I’m really pleased with it.
“I just need a good start tomorrow and crack on.”
With six Honda Civics securing top ten spots – albeit different models in the FK7 and the FK8 – Lloyd admits the 2.4-mile GP circuit clearly suits the Hondas.
However, he notes the difference in models and engines across the cars, with BTC Norlin running the TOCA engine, Team Dynamics with the Neil Brown built engine, and Eurotech Racing using Swindon engines.
“Everyone is saying Honda this, Honda that,” he said.
“But I mean you’ve got two different models – with different engines – so there’s quite a lot of variables in there.
“Maybe it’s a coincidence we all just did well. But certainly the Honda is good around here so I can’t fault that.”
After scoring his maiden BTCC victory at Croft in June, Lloyd is eyeing another victory this weekend to end his season on a high.
“The target has obviously got to be wins – you’ve got to aim high,” he said.
“But just to come away from the last weekend of the year with a real solid result would be great.”