Ollie Taylor inflicted the maximum damage on Dan Lloyds championship lead with victory in the second TCR UK race at Croft, as Lloyd retired on the opening lap after picking up damage at the chicane.
Starting the race on the reverse-grid pole position, Taylor made a good start to assume the lead heading into Turn 1, ahead of Verizon Connect Racing’s Finlay Crocker and WestCoast Racing’s Andreas Bäckman.
Points leader Dan Lloyd had made his way into fourth through the opening sequence of corners, from seventh on the grid, but disaster struck as he went through the chicane. Lloyd appeared to strike the second kerb hard, breaking his front-left suspension and sending his Volkswagen onto the grass on the infield and out of the race.
That left Taylor with a clear run to take his second victory of the season and inflict a huge 40-point dent into Lloyd’s series lead, which now stands at just 31 points heading to the season finale at Donington Park next month.
Crocker scored his first-ever TCR UK podium with second, holding off race one winner Andreas Bäckman’s WestCoast Racing Honda, with the Swede completing the podium to make it a Honda 1-2-3 at the front.
Jessica Bäckman had a quiet race on her way to take fourth, ahead of the CUPRA of Maximum Motorsport’s Stewart Lines in fifth.
After picking up a puncture and pitting for a new tyre, Lewis Kent finished in sixth, two laps down, as he then made a second stop to check everything was in order on his Essex & Kent Motorsport Hyundai.
DW Racing’s Darelle Wilson had been due to start on the front row of the grid alongside Taylor, but a steering rack issue which returned in race one prevented the Vauxhall Astra driver from taking the start.
The TCR UK season finale takes place at Donington Park on the 13th and 14th October.
Race result
POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
1 | 32 | Oliver TAYLOR | Pyro Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 14 | 20:43.336 | 1:27.250 | 1 | |
2 | 8 | Finlay CROCKER | Verizon Connect Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 14 | 3.372 | 1:27.183 | 4 | |
3 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN | WestCoast Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR | 14 | 3.822 | 1:27.413 | 5 | |
4 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 14 | 7.029 | 1:27.311 | 6 | |
5 | 95 | Stewart LINES | Maximum Motorsport | CUPRA TCR V3 DSG | 14 | 20.028 | 1:27.478 | 8 | |
6 | 38 | Lewis KENT | Essex & Kent Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 12 | + 2 LAPS | 1:27.001 | 3 | |
R | 23 | Dan LLOYD | WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 0 | DNF | N/A | 7 | |
NS | 50 | Darelle WILSON | DW Racing | Vauxhall Astra TCR | – | DNS | N/A | 2 |