Dan Lloyd Cleans Out the Trophy Cabinet at Croft

RAVENOL’s latest partners, British Touring Car Championship Team BTC Norlin, got their first win this weekend when new driver Dan Lloyd led from start to finish to take victory in Race 3

The weekend started well for Dan, taking 11th place in qualifying. Further back, Chris Smiley did not get off to the best start, lining up in 23rd on the grid for Race 1 on Sunday morning. Both drivers made up a few places at the start, before a car going off into the gravel brought out the safety car. Following the restart, both drivers continued to progress through the field, with Dan finishing inside the points positions in 8th, and Chris bringing his Honda Civic Type R home in a respectable 17th.

In Race 2 Chris had a great start and by the end of the first lap he was running in 15th. More progress was made and by the end of Lap 13 he had made his way up to 11th. Unfortunately, concerns over his engine temperatures required him to back off slightly and he ended the race in 12th. After taking the chequered flag, Chris parked his car up on the circuit and the team was forced to change his engine as a precaution for the next race.

Dan also got off to a good start in Race 2, though after that he started to struggle with the hard tyre option, which he was running for the race. He finished the race in 9th, but lady luck was on his side when he was promoted to pole position for Race 3, following the reverse grid draw.

After a mammoth effort by the team to install and set up the new engine in the time between races, Chris lined up on the grid in 17th place and Dan took his place on pole position. From then on, he put in an immaculate lights-to-flag drive to take the victory, as well as the fastest lap of the race. As well as the maiden win for BTC Norlin Racing, Dan also earned his first BTCC race win, the Independent win and the Jack Sears win - an incredible list of achievements for only his second weekend in the BTC Norlin Racing Honda Civic Type R!

Unfortunately, team mate Chris was not so fortunate when an incident on Lap 5 caused him to spin off the track and abandon his car on the infield.

With only 18 months back in the Championship, Team Director Bert Taylor was visibly proud of the team’s best result to date.

“I am so proud of what we achieved here at Croft,” he said. “It has been a difficult couple of weeks since the damage sustained to both cars at Oulton Park. The team have had to work very hard to get both Honda’s ready for this weekend and the weekend has been challenging for many reasons.

“I am thrilled for Dan on securing his first win in the Championship and I couldn’t be happier that we have been able to give him the car to not only get the job done but to produce such a dominant win.

Dan was grateful for the opportunity to get back to BTCC, and happy to have proved his worth to the team:

“It wasn’t just a win, it was much more than that for us, as we had to put in so much to just be there, which makes it even more special,” he admitted. “I can’t thank the team and our sponsors enough and it was perfect that the team’s first win fell on the same weekend as the 50th year of the Isle of Wight Festival, who are one of our sponsors. I couldn’t be happier with the race win – it means a lot to us all.”

RAVENOL are very excited at how much progress our new partners are making in the BTCC and we’re looking forward to catching up with them at their next race at Snetterton on the 28-29th of July. For more information, please check out the BTC Norlin website, or for ticket sales please click here, and for ITV4 television times please click here.