Daniel Lloyd Racing
Lloyd on top form at Donington with fourth fastest time
Ginetta Junior Championship rookie Daniel Lloyd posted a highly impressive fourth fastest time during pre-event testing at Donington Park National Circuit this morning, Friday, 2nd May, ahead of Sunday’s seventh and eighth rounds of the 2008 season.
The 16-year-old Huddersfield racer, who pilots the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Stars of Tomorrow backed car in this year’s Ginetta Junior series, has made remarkable progress since the start of the season. This morning’s three and a half hour session was confirmation of that, Daniel ending up just two 10ths of a second shy of the top spot.
Lapping the 1.96-mile National Circuit configuration in a best time of 1m 28.788 seconds (79.35mph) earlier today, the Tockwith Motorsport ace outpaced round two race winner George Richardson by 0.115 seconds and was himself only 0.154 seconds adrift of championship leader Dino Zamparelli in third place.
“Today has gone well, I’m really pleased with my times”, said the Huddersfield Grammar School student, “It’s been a good start to the weekend but I know I need to improve my qualifying, that’s the aim for tomorrow where we’ll be aiming for the top five.
“If we start on the first two or three rows then I think we’ll have a good chance to do well in the races on Sunday but we’ll see how things work out in qualifying. If we could finish in the top three that would be a dream result. I’d prefer it to be dry over the weekend but we did have a bit of testing in the wet last week so I’m not too fussed.”
Heading into rounds seven and eight a highly creditable fifth in the driver standings, Daniel is just nine points behind fellow rookie Josh Hill – son of 1996 FIA Formula One World Champion, Damon – and just 13 points adrift of the top three in the championship.
“I still need more seat-time in the car to keep improving and then, when I’m totally comfortable, we’ll start to look at set-up changes a lot more”, he added, “The team is doing a good job and I’m really enjoying it. If we can keep making the same level of progress we have during the first few race weekends, I’ll be very happy.”
Daniel earned the right to contest the current British Touring Car Championship supporting Ginetta Junior series at the wheel of the BRDC Stars of Tomorrow car after winning the 2007 BRDC Stars of Tomorrow Scholarship ‘Shoot-Out’.
Having achieved a season’s best race result of fourth position at Rockingham in Northamptonshire last time out, Daniel is edging ever closer to his tantalising first ever podium finish in cars.
Free practice ahead of the weekend’s Ginetta Junior Championship action will take place at 11.10 tomorrow, Saturday, 3rd May, at Donington Park with the 15-minute qualifying session following at 16.45.
Both races are timetabled for Sunday, 4th May, with round seven expected to commence at 10.30 and round eight scheduled to begin at approximately 17.25. Provisional 2008 Ginetta Junior Championship Positions (after Rd6) 1st Dino Zamparelli, 178pts; 2nd Thomas Carnaby, 173pts; 5th Daniel Lloyd, 99pts