Dan Lloyd underlined his satisfaction after a positive start to his TCR Europe career in both free practice sessions at Hockenheim today.
Lloyd – the reigning TCR UK Champion and a race-winner in the British Touring Car Championship last season – finished both sessions in fourth with near-identical lap times in the Brutal Fish-run Honda Civic Type R FK7.
The 27-year old has also previously run in the TCR International Series, took a maiden win on his debut in TCR China this month and served as the official Balance of Performance (BoP) test driver for the past two seasons.
Lloyd’s last race at the 2.8-mile Baden-Wurttemberg circuit was back in 2009, taking pole position and a race win in the Scirocco Cup.
He’s hopeful of a repeat success this time around in Germany, but above all hailed a positive start to life in TCR’s headline European series.
“It’s a really good start to the season. I haven’t raced here at Hockenheim for ten years and it’s a new team, a new car – I’ve been in a Honda but for me, it’s a different car,” explained Lloyd to TouringCars.net.
“After first practice we sat down and made quite a lot of changes for second practice, working really hard with my engineer and we took a massive step forward.
“It’s really important, me and my engineer working well together, which is definitely happening so yeah, a really good, solid start to the weekend.”
Lloyd also explained that, whilst he sampled the Honda as part of his BoP testing duties, racing the car regularly is an entirely different matter, and the process isn’t quite as simple as stepping back into the driving seat and being competitive from the off.
“It helps, definitely, but when you get to this sort of level in TCR Europe, it’s the final few tenths that really make the difference and part of those few tenths comes from continuity from running with the team in pre-season testing, making the mistakes before the start of the season and things like that,” said Lloyd.
“So, to jump in to a new team for the first day with all this going on and being up at the sharp end as I am, I’m really pleased. There’s definitely more to come as well, which is always nice.”
Looking ahead to the double-header, Lloyd says the focus is on making a solid start to his 2019 programme, with one eye on some silverware to take home to Huddersfield.
“I’d love to have a win, but I think a podium would be fantastic. Some good solid points and a podium would be nice.”
The weekends action continues at Hockenheim with qualifying tomorrow morning [25th May] at 09:05 BST.