Daniel Lloyd says he is targeting a podium finish in this weekend’s British Touring Car Championship races at Brands Hatch, pointing to the fact that Team HARD has had a driver on the rostrum at the circuit on the past two visits to the Indy circuit.
Lloyd had a challenging opening weekend at Donington Park in April, with the 31-year-old managing just one points finish in his Team HARD-run CUPRA.
The Huddersfield racer’s chassis was newly-built over the winter, and Lloyd had to work hard at Donington Park to make up for a lack of pre-season testing mileage.
Despite that, he qualified in 12th for the opening race, as the best of the Kent-based team’s drivers, missing out on the top ten shootout by just over a tenth of a second.
Contact in race one knocked him down the order, and although he recovered from 19th to finish 13th in a wet race two, tyre issues in race three saw Lloyd again drop down, to 18th.
Looking ahead to Brands Hatch Indy, Lloyd – who won on the Grand Prix circuit in the final race of 2022 – is buoyed by the previous pace of the car and team at the circuit.
“The results on paper from Donington Park don’t really reflect how we performed and in all three races,” explained Lloyd. “There were circumstances outside my control that affected our results.
“Going to Brands Hatch this weekend, I’m looking to build on the positives that we were able to take away from round one, and if we can avoid the misfortune we suffered two weeks ago, then I think we’ll be in good shape.
“Obviously this is still a very new programme for me and we’re learning more and more every time we go out on track.
“We have a lot to work through in practice and various things that we want to try out but the ingredients are all there – we’ve just got to bring it all together.
“Having shown top-ten pace out of the box during the season opener, that’s got to be the first target but in each of the last two seasons, the CUPRA has come away from Brands Hatch with a podium in the reverse grid race.
“If we could make it a hat-trick this weekend, it would be a great way to really kick my season into gear.”