Doubts over Turkington, Lloyd
A massive crash in the final race of last weekend’s British Touring Car Championship race at Oulton Park has jeopardised the 2022 seasons of Dan Lloyd and four-time champion Colin Turkington.
Lloyd’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N was spat into the barriers on the opening lap after contact with Ricky Collard’s Toyota Corolla as they fought for third place. He then bounced back onto the circuit and was rammed by the West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport of Turkington, who had been tucked up behind Lloyd’s team-mate Tom Ingram before Ingram made a remarkable lastgasp swerve to avoid the wreckage.
The car Turkington is racing this year is a brand-new one following the sale of his 2019 title winner, which he also raced to the runner-up spot in 2020 and 2021, so there is no spare available with the next round at Croft in just over a week’s time.
“It’s going up to Willie Poole [renowned Rugby-based BTCC chassis wizard] today and we won’t know until he looks at it,” said WSR boss Dick Bennetts on Tuesday. “It’s mainly hit the right-front corner and the subframe’s destroyed, although we can bolt them on. But the shell is worse than we thought. It could be an awkward one and we’ve got a bit of a drama on our hands.
“And the steering rack’s been pushed back into the engine, so the engine’s got to go back to [BMW builder] Neil Brown’s. It’s the worst shunt we’ve had in the BTCC, and the most expensive one by the looks of it.”
Turkington reported on Monday that he was suffering from “whiplash really – it’s my neck and shoulders that took the brunt of it”. Lloyd, meanwhile, told us he had “bruised lungs, bruised ribs, sore around the limbs and swollen knackers!”
The Yorkshireman, who had made a step forward at Oulton to qualify third, is also worried about the trip to his local venue of Croft and the rest of his season. “The damage to the car is even worse than what we expected,” said Lloyd. “It’s a serious incident and a huge impact to my budget. The goal is to be at Croft but it’s not a good situation financially at the moment.”