Not even a partial reverse grid could stop Dan Lloyd from dominating TCR UK Race 2 at Silverstone.
TCR UK rules state that the grid for the second race of each weekend is set by the order of each drivers second fastest qualifying times with the top ten reversed. This saw Lloyd start from grid position nine but it took him only until Copse corner at the start of lap six to take a lead that would never be challenged, eventually winning by just under five seconds from a very impressive Andreas Backman.
It looked for all the world as though Aiden Moffat would take his second runner up spot of the day. From a starting position of tenth he followed Lloyd through the pack to take second position at Becketts on lap 11. From there he and Backman ran almost as one, never separated by more than a second through most of the rest of the thirty minute race. However, with three minutes to go disaster struck as Moffatt’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta slowed and stopped on the Wellington straight seemingly with an engine related issue. (EDIT – the team have confirmed that the car actually ran out of fuel).
The Alfa’s have had some poor reliability this weekend with the teams other driver, Derek Palmer, being struck with fuel injection issues that caused him to miss qualifying and retire from Race 1. After a spin at the start of Race 2 Palmer was putting in some very fast times (almost equal to Moffat) until he was again forced to retire on the same lap as Moffat. The cars, run by Laser Tools Racing / DPE Motorsport have had very little running before this weekend and therefore will have a bit of work to do ready for the next round at Knockhill in mid-May.
All this left Backman to take the podium position he thought he had in race 1 to top off a stellar weekend for a driver who is racing in his first ever circuit car race weekend (though he has experience of both karting and rallycross). WestCoast must be very pleased to have made the trip over from Sweden taking a total of three podiums with its trio of VW Golfs (two for Lloyd and one for A. Backman).
The podium was rounded out by Team Pyro’s Ollie Taylor who came through from seventh on the grid. He will be happy to capitalise on Moffat’s retirement and with two thirds this is a fantastic start to his TCR UK campaign and sees him second in the standings.
Howard Fuller rounded out his first weekend back in a racing car for some time with a fourth place in the Sean Walkinsaw Honda Civic. Next up was Olli Kangas in the Finnish team LMS Racing run CUPRA TCR car. Kangas started and ran second for a few laps before dropping back but will still be happy with that result. The final WestCoast run Golf of Jessica Backman finished sixth ahead of Darelle Wilson. Wilson expected to be starting from fourth but as he didn’t finish Race 1 due to a spin he had to join Palmer on the back row so must be ruing what could have been.
Stuart Lines and Finlay Croker in the Honda Civic had a great scrap for eight and ninth that went the way of Lines’ CUPRA TCR. Carl Swift was tenth and Lewis Kent eleventh.
So with two wins from two Dan Lloyd leads the TCR UK championship leaving Silverstone. The question is will we see him again this year? His deal with WestCoast was only for this weekend but he is working hard behind the scenes to turn it into a full championship campaign. All who saw him drive today hope he will return, along with all the other drivers, at Knockhill for Round 3 and 4 in May. All-in-all Silverstone has been a very promising start for TCR UK.
Feature Credit – Gary Jones
