Daniel Lloyd Racing
Daniel survives spills and thrills with solid performance - Brace of top ten places moves him up the table
Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire oozes character and history. Famous for its ‘Mountain’ section where cars often become airborne, the track is a demanding mixture of twists and turns, with eye-wateringly fast straights – and it’s where Daniel found himself for the 3rd and 4th rounds of the Ginetta Junior Championship.
Just a week after his dramatic debut at Brands Hatch, 16-year old Dan was back behind the wheel – this time at the Ginetta Festival – and aiming to build on last weekend’s impressive start to the season, where he took 11th and 5th position.
“It’s a big disadvantage if you’ve not been there before” he said candidly after Timed Qualifying and referring to the fact that he’d never even seen the two-mile ‘Mini-Nurburgring’ before, let alone driven a car round it. Still, he managed to record the 10th fastest time which illustrates the big strides he’s already taken in this, his rookie year in cars.
In the first race, Daniel got a great start and was up to 7th place by the end of the first lap. One tour later and he was 6th but an accident brought the race to a halt. At the re-start, Daniel’s inexperience cost him dear - “I’d got up to 6th but span at the bottom of ‘the Mountain’ and dropped to last. I got the car going again and came through to finish 10th. Apart from the spin, it wasn’t a bad drive” he said wryly.
With the driver’s second best qualifying lap-time deciding their grid slot for the 2nd race, Daniel found himself starting from the sixth row. As the lights went out, he rocketed off the line and sliced past two drivers – going in between them. Daniel then passed another two cars heading into ‘Coppice’ corner. On lap 2, he again made up places to find himself in 6th place and bearing down on Damon Hill’s son, Josh.
Suddenly, hailstones began to bounce off the bonnet and windscreen and the track quickly became slippery. “To be honest, I backed off when it started to snow and hail” Lloyd explained with his customary honesty. “I’d not driven the car in those conditions before and decided that taking it easy was better than binning it.”
It was a sensible decision. As others got into difficulties, Daniel calmly waited for the track to dry before picking his pace up again. “Once the hail stopped, the track dried pretty quickly and I ended up matching the leaders’ times” he said with some satisfaction afterwards. Holding onto his place to the flag gave him more valuable championship points and moved him up the order to 7th overall.
“I’m enjoying the experience more now. I’ve realised that, unlike karts where I wanted to win every race I entered, I’m not expected to in Ginettas. This is my learning year, so the pressure’s off. I’m quite pleased with my performance at Cadwell. Okay, it was a shame about the spin (in the first race) but the team said I did really, really well in the second race. It was a nice, steady weekend.”
Daniel and the Ginetta Junior championship rejoins the British Touring Car bill at Rockingham Speedway, in Northamptonshire this weekend. Watch ITV4 from 12:30 to see Daniel in action live on your TV.