A procedural issue caused confusion in the starting order for the opening TCR UK race at Knockhill, with pole-sitter Dan Lloyd sent to the back of the grid and then subsequently reinstated at the front.
Lloyd qualified his WestCoast Racing Volkswagen on pole position on Saturday, but during scrutineering his car was reported to have been found to be underweight, along with three other cars of fellow WestCoast Racing driver Jessica Bäckman, Lewis Kent’s Hyundai and Laser Tools Racing’s Derek Palmer.
The issue was reported to the Clerk of the Course and all four cars were subsequently excluded from qualifying. However, the teams appealed the decision and minutes before the race was due to begin the ruling was overturned, reinstating the original grid positions.
TouringCars.Net understands that the confusion surrounding the weight of the cars was procedural rather than technical, resulting in the original qualifying result being upheld, in part due to the lack of time before the start of the race, which ended up being delayed by ten minutes as a result.
That then allowed a pumped-up Lloyd to claim the victory in the opening race. As a result of the U-turn on the disqualification of the drivers, the grid for race two will remain as the top ten reversal of drivers’ second best qualifying times.