Daniel Lloyd edged closer to the top of the Independent drivers’ standings in the British Touring Car Championship races at Donington Park, with the Restart Racing driver now just two points behind Mikey Doble.
Lloyd finished second in class behind team-mate Chris Smiley in the opening race at the East Midlands circuit, having elected to get the slower hard compound tyre out of the way early in the day.
When Smiley was then excluded from the race two result for failing the ride height check, Lloyd was promoted to the independent win.
Having been classified tenth overall in race two, Lloyd missed out on the race three reverse-grid draw, but the Huddersfield racer took the chequered flag in eighth and with it a second class victory of the day.
Having been 30 points adrift of the Independents’ class lead at the half-way stage of the season, Lloyd has now closed to within two points of rival Doble, with Smiley just one point further back as the trio battle for the Independents title in the final two meetings of the year.
“It was quite a tough weekend in the end but we’ve ended it on a real positive with two Independents’ wins allowing us to close in on the championship lead,” said Lloyd.
“We showed we had strong pace in practice and it was great to be up there in the top five in both sessions, although we were one of the drivers who got caught out a bit by the rain in qualifying which left us out of position on the grid.
“We played the long game with our strategy by getting rid of the hard tyre in race one and it worked in our favour.
“We managed to grab some points before switching back onto the medium tyre for races two and three, where a double Independents’ win was just what we needed.
“It was a shame that we missed the reverse grid for race three but overall we can be really pleased with the pace we showed this weekend and we’re now only two points off the Independents’ lead with two rounds left where we should be strong.”