UK: Daniel Lloyd Brands Hatch summary

LLOYD DELIGHTED WITH TOP SEVEN FINISH DURING ROUND TWO

ELF Renault Clio Cup racer Daniel Lloyd concluded the opening race meeting of the 2009 season at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit this afternoon, Sunday, 5th April, in fine style by securing a very competitive top seven finish -- the second highest result of the rookie drivers.

Battling hard with a number of much more experienced competitors throughout the second round of the new championship campaign, the Huddersfield teenager produced a sterling performance in only his second race outing in Clios to finish a mere three 10ths of a second outside the coveted top six.

Daniel's efforts were also beamed live to the nation on ITV4 as part of the channel's coverage of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship race package and added to the 14th place finish he achieved during round one on Saturday afternoon, the 17-year-old is eighth in the driver standings.

"I'm really happy with today's result, I know I drove a lot better than during the first round yesterday as I'm starting to get more used to this style of racing", said Daniel, "I think in Saturday's race I defended too much which stopped me from going forward. Today I concentrated on pushing forward and it worked well.

"You can't make any mistakes in Clios, if you do you lose a load of positions. The reason I managed to get past (Andrew) Herron early on was because he ran wide at Graham Hill Bend, it's so hard to pass at Brands Hatch Indy but we did a good job today. Hopefully for the next round I can qualify a bit better and continue moving forward."

Lining up 10th on the grid following a solid maiden qualifying performance yesterday morning, the Team Pyro racer made a good start to today's encounter and quickly climbed into the top eight but the action was soon curtailed when the Safety Car was deployed after a couple of cars made contact at Druids Hairpin.

The re-start came on lap five and Daniel did a good job of getting back up to racing speed without losing ground and, perhaps more importantly, keeping Alex Osborne at bay behind. Seventh placed Andrew Herron then made a mistake going through Graham Hill Bend and Daniel needed no second invitation as he passed the former Clio Cup race winner on the run along Cooper Straight.

On lap 12, the Safety Car was required again following a second incident. The re-start came on lap 17 and Daniel continued to press on as he strived to force sixth placed Lee Pattison into making an error.

With overtaking at a premium on the 1.2-mile track though, Daniel was satisfied to end the race in seventh place just a few 10ths of a second behind Pattison. His fastest race lap, meanwhile, was a time of 53.263 seconds, just three 10ths of a second shy of podium finishing pace.

After a great debut weekend in the ELF Renault Clio Cup, Daniel now has a three week break until the third and fourth rounds of the season at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire on 25th/26th April.

2009 Provisional ELF Renault Clio Cup Standings (after Rd2): 1st Philip Glew, 66pts; 2nd Alex MacDowall, 55pts; 8th Daniel Lloyd, 23pts

-credit: daniellloydracing.com