Porsche Carrera Cup GB Scholar Daniel Lloyd remains fifth in the championship standings despite a frustrating outing at Snetterton 300 Circuit over the weekend, 11th/12th August, during the sixth race meeting of his rookie campaign in the prestigious sportscar category.
The highlight for the Huddersfield 20-year-old came during the first of Sunday’s two races, round 11, in which he delivered a strong performance in hot and challenging conditions to secure a top four finish just over a couple of seconds shy of the podium.
With the 2.97-mile ‘300 Circuit’ not lending itself particularly well to overtaking in Porsche Carrera Cup GB, qualifying proved crucial and Daniel was disappointed not to convert his top three testing pace into a slot on the first couple of rows of the grid.
Set to begin Sunday morning’s encounter from sixth place, this became fifth prior to the actual start when Ben Barker’s car ground to a halt on the green flag lap. When the action got underway, Daniel held position through the first corner but subsequently slipped back to sixth behind Rory Butcher.
As his Team Parker Racing-prepared Porsche started to come into its own, so the Yorkshireman was able to begin upping his pace and between laps four and eight he closed down a 2.6 second deficit to Butcher to a mere 0.7 seconds.
On the final lap, Daniel’s pressure paid off as Butcher made a costly mistake which allowed the TNT Post, TSD, Creechurch Private Wealth, Propack and TPA Yorkshire-backed ace to pounce to claim a hard-fought fourth place finish.
Beginning round 12 from eighth on the grid, Daniel’s task was even harder than in the opener but he made a good getaway and climbed into seventh. Running tight behind race one rival Butcher, who in turn was very close to the car of Jonas Gelzinis, just fractions of a second separated the trio.
Visibly quicker than the two drivers ahead, the first year Porsche racer looked every which way for an opportunity to try and pass. On the penultimate tour, lap 13, he attempted a pass up the inside into the hairpin but an unfortunate lock-up resulted in contact with Butcher. Daniel did take the flag in sixth position but he was later demoted to 12th in the results, behind the Scotsman.
“It’s been a really frustrating weekend and it all stemmed from qualifying”, explained Daniel, “It’s so hard to pass around this track. It’s strange, you would think it’d be easy enough but in a Porsche, the way there are fast corners going into slow corners, you just can’t get close enough. My performance in the first race was good though, I felt I made a big improvement in my driving.
“Starting eighth in the second race, it was always going to be really hard work and you’re just relying on people making mistakes – and nobody did! The contact with Rory [Butcher] was unfortunate. I had a good run on him through the first corner, it was the closest I’d been, but just locked-up as he defended late at the hairpin. It’s a shame but just one of those things unfortunately.”
Daniel now has only a fortnight to wait until he’s back at the wheel of his Porsche 911 GT3 with rounds 13 and 14 of the season taking place at Knockhill Circuit in Scotland on 25th/26th August.
2012 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship Driver Standings (after Rd12):
1st Michael Meadows, 211pts; 5th Daniel Lloyd, 140pts
1st Michael Meadows, 211pts; 5th Daniel Lloyd, 140pts
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