BTC Norlin Racing’s Dan Lloyd says he ‘dragged some great results’ out of his British Touring Car Championship weekend at Snetterton, after taking two top tens and a trio of points finishes.
Lloyd struggled for single lap pace on Saturday in the dry after being on the back foot going into the weekend, with the team having been one of the few to miss the mid-season test earlier in the month.
That left Lloyd in 23rd and 17th in the day’s two qualifying sessions respectively, putting him as the lowest-ranked Honda driver in first qualifying.
But the Huddersfield driver fought back in Sunday’s races, moving up to ninth in the wet first race, and taking a point home in race two despite contact with Tom Chilton on lap four dropping him out of eighth.
Lloyd then fought back in the final race of the day to take another ninth and move up to 17th overall in the drivers’ championship standings.
“We had some really good pace this weekend but were a bit unlucky at key points in the races,” said Lloyd. “We came into the weekend on the back foot already after missing the test.
“We then didn’t have clean free practice sessions after a few niggles with the car, so to be fair, we dragged some great results out of the weekend. We fought really well, and we kept out of a lot of the trouble on track.
“The first race went well. Coming from 23rd up to ninth was great, especially in those conditions. I got another strong start in race two and I think we had a really good chance of finishing in the top five until we got hit.
“I went up the inside but unfortunately got tagged by another car which caused a bit of damage. Then going into the corner at the end of the straight it put me off the circuit and dropped us back.
“I got off to another strong start in race three but then got boxed out at the hairpin and onto all the damp so dropped back to 20th before managing to fight our way back to ninth.”
Looking ahead to the next meeting, Lloyd is optimistic of performing strongly, especially as he will be ballast-free once again.
“We’ve definitely got the race pace in the car and the results didn’t really show that.
“If we can nail qualifying at Rockingham then we’ll be right up there at the sharp end challenging for podiums.”