Lloyd victorious in exciting opening race at Knockhill

WestCoast Racing’s Daniel Lloyd put in a flawless drive to take victory in the opening TCR UK Series race at Knockhill, as Pyro Motorsport’s Ollie Taylor and BMR Autoglym Acamdemy’s Josh Price completed the podium after a thrilling scrap.
Lloyd started the race from pole position and never looked back as he built up a comfortable margin early in the race, whilst the pack behind him scrapped for position in a thrilling race.

Lloyd commented: “I was so revved up at the start! I put so much heat into the tyres that I was borderline chucking the car off on the warm-up lap to get as much heat in as possible. That’s what allowed me to open up that gap at the start whilst it was still slippery. Then it sort of evened out, and Aiden was matching my pace, so when the safety car came out I was gutted, but then I heard he had stopped which was unfortunate. I don’t wish that on anyone but it made my life easier at the end of the race.”

Taylor had got the jump on Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat at the start, before he slid wide in his Honda Civic on lap six and dropped to fourth, releasing Moffat to try to reduce Lloyd’s then six-second gap. However, Moffat’s charge came to an abrupt end at the mid-point of the race when he suffered from a driveshaft failure, elevating WestCoast Racing’s Andreas Bäckman into second.
A mid-race safety car period was required in order to retrieve the beached Hyundai i30 N of Lewis Kent who had gone off at McIntyres, and when the race resumed on lap 22 Andreas Bäckman made an unforced error into the first turn, locking his brakes and handing second to Taylor.
Bäckman sought to re-pass the Honda two laps later but contact between the pair gave Price the opportunity to move into second. The BMR driver would only hold the position for two laps though, and Taylor re-passed with just five laps to run and the podium positions would remain unchanged thereafter.
Fourth went to Andreas Bäckman, ahead of Sean Walkinshaw in fifth, who is making his TCR UK race début for his team of the same name this weekend. Derek Palmer finished the race as Laser Tools Racing’s sole remaining Alfa Romeo in sixth after a relatively uneventful drive for the Scot, ahead of Jessica Bäckman (WestCoast Racing) in seventh.
Darelle Wilson (DW Racing) was eighth, having received a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits in the race, although his race ended with an accident with Finlay Crocker (Verizon Connect Racing) at McIntyres bend on the final lap, despite the latter running a lap down. Crocker had earlier suffered from several spins during the race and was a lap down as a result.
Race 2 will start at 14:25 local (15:25 CET) and be streamed live at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv.