Daniel Lloyd does the double as Excelr8 Motorsport claims first 1-2 finish

Daniel Lloyd doubled up in the British Touring Car Championship at Croft, heading home Excelr8 Motorsport team-mate Tom Ingram in race two as the outfit scored its first 1-2 result in the championship.

Having won the day’s earlier opening race, Lloyd then made a strong start at the beginning of race two, quickly opening up a gap to the chasing pack.

His team-mate Ingram was immediately his closest challenger, the 28-year-old having gone around the outside of Team Dynamics’ Daniel Rowbottom at the first corner, before a superb move on BMW’s Colin Turkington for second as they went through the Jim Clark Esses.

As in race one, Lloyd had to again manage a safety car restart when his team-mate James Gornall went off into the barriers at Hawthorn on lap four after his front-left suspension failed.

Despite that, Lloyd made a strong restart and then held firm as Ingram kept the pressure up, ultimately winning by just over half a second to record his third outright BTCC win – all of which have come at Croft.

Ingram claimed second and in doing so became the new championship leader, the Hyundai driver holding a nine-point advantage over BTC Racing’s Josh Cook with one race remaining in the day.

Turkington completed the podium, the northern Irishman unable to recover the ground he lost on the opening lap whilst getting his tyres up to temperature.

MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill was fourth, having pulled off a strong pass on Rowbottom entering into the Jim Clark Esses on lap 11.

Rowbottom took fifth, whilst NAPA Racing’s Ash Sutton was sixth, having once again had a consistent race but with no progress forward for the reigning champion.

Toyota’s Rory Butcher and Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat finished the race where they had started in seventh and eighth respectively.

Both Excelr8’s Tom Chilton and BMW’s Stephen Jelley benefitted from the demise of George Gamble to finish in ninth and tenth respectively.

Ciceley Motorsport’s Gamble had been running in ninth before his BMW slowed suddenly exiting the hairpin on lap nine, dropping him to the back of the field.

Cook continued his forward progress to take 11^th, ahead of Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden in 12^th – the latter making up an impressive 16 places.

After the race, Lloyd selected the maximum grid reversal for race three, vindicating Shedden’s efforts to put him on pole ahead of Cook as the top twelve were selected to be inverted.

Aside from Gornall, Power Maxed Racing’s Michael Crees was the first driver to drop out after picking up front-right damage on his Vauxhall and having to limp back to the pits, whilst Ricky Collard had to pit with issues on his Toyota.

Jade Edwards picked up a drive-through penalty because her mechanics were still working on the car when the three-minute board was shown – she finished in 23^rd as a result.

Race three is scheduled to get underway at 17:37 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	123	M		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	26:55.725	1:21.965	1
2	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	0.634	1:21.863	4
3	50	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	18	1.156	1:21.936	2
4	24	M		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	18	2.490	1:22.306	5
5	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	18	4.586	1:22.243	3
6	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	5.516	1:22.394	6
7	6	M		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	6.719	1:22.287	7
8	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	18	9.905	1:22.865	8
9	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	11.442	1:23.064	10
10	12	M		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	18	11.842	1:22.771	11
11	66	I		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	18	12.457	1:22.818	15
12	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	18	12.883	1:22.348	28
13	9	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	14.384	1:22.732	13
14	19	I		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	18	14.766	1:22.701	12
15	33	I		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	18	15.075	1:22.848	19
16	97	I		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	18	17.864	1:22.880	18
17	11	I		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	18	21.244	1:22.990	17
18	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	18	23.409	1:23.539	20
19	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	18	25.003	1:23.772	21
20	48	M		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	18	26.004	1:23.796	27
21	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	18	26.572	1:23.597	25
22	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	18	31.676	1:24.090	23
23	99	I		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	18	32.529	1:23.904	22
24	20	I		Will POWELL	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	18	40.882	1:23.868	26
25	42	I		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	16	2 Laps	1:22.564	9
26	21	M		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	2 Laps	1:22.741	24
R	18	M		James GORNALL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	3	DNF	1:23.387	14
R	777	I		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	3	DNF	1:26.025	16
NS	41	I		Carl BOARDLEY	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	–	DNS	N/A	–