NEW TCR UK CHAMPIONSHIP KICKS OFF AT SILVERSTONE
Late entrant Daniel Lloyd proved the man to beat at TCR UK’S inaugural weekend of racing. The Volkswagen driver took pole position and both wins, leaving Silverstone with a healthy championship lead, although his participation in further rounds is currently unconfirmed.
Lloyd’s closest challenger on pace was Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat. The Scotsman looked set to snatch pole when he fired in two quick laps at the end of a wet session on Saturday, lifting him from fifth to first. But Moffat’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta was baulked on his final lap and couldn’t go any faster, while Lloyd made the most of the improving conditions to post the session benchmark.
The pair eased clear in Sunday afternoon’s first race, but Moffat was unable to mount a serious challenge for victory. He struggled with the handling of the car, which the team had collected from Italy during the week. With Friday and Saturday both wet, there had been little opportunity to dial the car in. “It’s a very soft chassis with a lot of roll in it,” Moffat explained, adding that he was losing time in the National Circuit’s slower corners.
Pushing hard to keep up, Moffat had tested the track’s boundaries, and was issued a five-second penalty that dropped him to fourth on the final lap. But he’d received no warning so it was rescinded, albeit only as the champagne was being sprayed without him.
“I was using all the track plus some, waiting for a warning flag, which is an indication to rein it in a bit,” Moffat said.
Behind the leading duo, Ollie Taylor and Lloyd’s West Coast Racing teammate Andreas Backman were best of the rest. Taylor qualified his Pyro Motorsport Honda Civic fifth but took advantage of fellow Honda driver Howard Fuller’s sluggish start, then passed Lewis Kent (Hyundai i30 N) at Brooklands on the first lap before holding station. Backman, who competed in the RX2 category of World Rallycross last season, was making his car racing debut. Fourth fastest in free practice, he could manage only eighth in qualifying, struggling in the changeable conditions. He made quick progress to fourth and briefly stood on the podium until Moffat’s position was restored.
The Swede secured a trophy to keep in the second race, the grid for which reverses the order of the top 10 drivers’ second best qualifying time.
From third, Backman jumped into the lead. But Lloyd, starting ninth, had rocketed off the line.
Sixth by the first corner, he picked off Moffat, polesitter Stewart Lines and Taylor in the remainder of the lap, and Finn Olli Kangas (SEAT) second time around. Lloyd then reeled in Backman and, getting a run out of Luffield, took the lead after only five of the 31 laps.
Moffat made similar progress from 10th and passed Backman on the run to Becketts a few laps later. His second position evaporated with two-and-ahalf laps remaining, along with the last of his fuel, leaving the team members scratching their heads.
That promoted Backman to second, with Taylor again completing the podium despite struggling for front-end grip. It was an impressive first weekend in front-wheel-drive machinery for the Kumho BMW class champion.
Fuller, fifth in race one, improved to fourth in race two after poor starts in both. “The procedure is completely different to what I’m used to,” explained Fuller, who hopes to adapt team boss Sean Walkinshaw’s base set-up to better suit his style.
Kangas managed fifth in race two, while Finlay Crocker took the new FK7 version of the Civic to a best finish of sixth, ruing a delay to the 2018 TCR Balance of Performance regulations that he felt left his car under-powered.
That result was matched by Backman’s sister Jessica, while Darelle Wilson’s Vauxhall Astra, which first ran in anger on Saturday morning, was seventh in race two. Lines beat Carl Swift (SEAT) to a pair of wins in the category for cars running with a DSG gearbox.
Sole Hyundai runner Kent suffered a mysterious lack of power on his way to a pair of 11th-place finishes. He had qualified fourth, going fastest when he was the first to switch to slicks, then sat out the dying minutes.
Moffat’s team-mate Derek Palmer had a weekend to forget. After brake problems, a misfire prevented any running on Saturday. Despite sourcing a fuel injector from a road car, the issue returned in race one, then a spin and a loose boost hose accounted for his 12th in race two, despite setting top-six lap times.