Dan Lloyd is hoping to put together a deal to continue in the TCR UK series at Croft, after admitting that in order to secure the inaugural title he can’t afford to not race in the penultimate meeting of the year.
Lloyd endured his first winless weekend in the series last time out at Oulton Park, and as such his lead stands at 78 points – in part due to having now received deductions of 30 points – leaving him vulnerable in the title race if he were to skip Croft.
The way in which points are awarded in TCR UK – with a win earning 40 points and pole taking 11 points – combined with modest grid sizes means that if Lloyd were to miss the event he could suffer in the championship campaign.
WestCoast Racing had planned all year to skip the Yorkshire event due to a clash with the STCC round at Rudskogen in Norway, resulting in the adbsence of Andreas and Jessica Bäckman from the grid for the first time this year.
“Croft originally wasn’t in the budget – we were hoping we could have done six out of seven and won the championship,” Lloyd explained to TouringCars.Net. “But the way things have happened with some penalty points it’s not possible, so we need to find a way of doing it.
“I really want to be there in a Golf; I’ve had some support from Volkswagen this year which has been great, and we really want to be out in a Golf.
“At the minute we’ve got a way of doing it with WestCoast on a more budget scale – for example we won’t be doing the test on Friday – but we’re just trying to find the budget to make sure we’re out and get the points. We’re not a million miles off, but we still need to find some support.”
Lloyd believes that if he didn’t race that title rival Ollie Taylor could potentially take home a maximum points score of 91 points – which would give the Pyro Motorsport driver the edge going into the season finale.
“If I didn’t do it would only take the smallest thing to go wrong and then [the title] would be done. There’s a good chance Taylor would score borderline maximum points at Croft the way the grid numbers are looking, which doesn’t help.
“If that was the case then I’d go into Donington I think around 12 or 13 points behind. There aren’t 30 cars on the grid so everyone can still score strong even with a bad result. It would be tough.
“It would be a shame [not to lift the title] – I won the first seven out of eight races, so to come away not winning the championship would be crazy.
“We’ve shown how dominant we have been, and everyone knows it, but it’s still a title and it’s the first season of TCR UK, so it would be amazing to get the title. It’s something we don’t want to let go.”