Excelr8 Motorsport’s Daniel Lloyd kept himself in the top ten of the British Touring Car Championship’s drivers’ standings after Brands Hatch by securing a further two top ten results.
Lloyd went into the weekend eighth in the standings, and as such would have had some hybrid boost to use in qualifying.
However, after a failure of his car’s hybrid system for qualifying, Lloyd could only manage the 16th fastest time, ending up just under three tenths of a second from pole position.
Rain arrived on Sunday, giving the 30-year-old – who has no prior knowledge of racing his Hyundai i30 N Fastback in the went – a new challenge.
His progress was compounded by a brake issue early on in the race, resulting in too much brake bias towards the rear of his car.
Having dropped to virtually last on the opening lap, Lloyd then fought his way back to 15th come the chequered flag – still without hybrid – to salvage a point and boost his starting position for race two.
In the second encounter Lloyd’s hybrid was finally fixed and he broke into the top ten to record an eight place finish.
Race three saw Lloyd make some more changes in the increasingly wet conditions, but from fifth on the grid he struggled for pace compared to earlier in the day and he ultimately ended up in ninth.
“It’s been a challenging weekend and there were a number of little issues that we had to deal with, but we have come away from it with some more solid results on the board,” said Lloyd.
“We’re still trying to find the sweet spot for me with the car and we went a certain way with the set-up going into the weekend, but I knew after practice that we’d gone the wrong way and we made some pretty big changes ahead of qualifying.
“Had the hybrid not failed, I’m sure we’d have been in the top six on the grid as the times were so close, but I was still confident about what was possible in the races.”
Lloyd took some comfort from the pace he demonstrated, despite the lack of a functioning hybrid system in two of the weekend’s key sessions.
“The braking problem at the start of race one certainly didn’t help, but the fact we were able to come through to score points without the hybrid working showed how good the car was, and we took advantage in race two to get up into the top ten.
“More points in race three was a solid way to finish the weekend, so it’s not been too bad when you consider everything that was thrown at us.
“We just need to get the car in the right place for my driving style and I have no doubt that once we get that sorted, we’ll be right up there in the top five or six on a regular basis.
“We know the pace is there in the car, and it’s just a case of putting the final pieces of the puzzle in place so what we can arrive at a track and be on it from the start.”