Driver Database News

ELF Renault Clio Cup front-runner Daniel Lloyd cannot wait for the penultimate event of the 2009 season at Rockingham International Super Sports Car Circuit next weekend, 19th/20th September, as he seeks his elusive first podium finish in the British Touring Car Championship-supporting category.

Daniel, who lives in Scammonden near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, has been a revelation in the hugely competitive Clio Cup this year after graduating from the Ginetta Junior Championship at the end of 2008. Against some of the quickest and most talented saloon car drivers in the country, he has most certainly acquitted himself well and is currently a highly creditable 10th overall in the standings.

With a string of excellent points finishes over the course of the first 16 races, including three top sixes and eight other top 10 results, Daniel has really come into his own since switching to the Total Control Racing team ahead of rounds seven and eight at Oulton Park in May. Since that time, he has finished inside the top nine on all but two occasions and one of those was an enforced retirement.

Unfortunate to miss out on a maiden Clio Cup podium during the last event at Silverstone a fortnight ago, Daniel has proven time and again he has the pace to challenge right at the front. Rockingham is actually one of his favourite tracks and although he’s only ever driven a Clio there once before, the 17-year-old is hoping the Northamptonshire circuit could provide a breakthrough moment for him.

“I’ve only tested a Clio once before at Rockingham and that was during the winter series test day last November ”, commented Daniel, “I don’t know what to expect totally as we’ve only had that one run before but I do like Rockingham, it’s a good track and I’m really looking forward to the races.

“We’ve proven the pace is there to run at the front and be consistently in the top six and to be in the top 10 of the championship with just a couple of events to go is great for our first season in Clios. If things go our way at Rockingham we should have a good chance of taking our best result of the year. The car has been great and the team is doing a fantastic job so I’m feeling very positive.”

Pre-event testing for the penultimate event of the season will take place on Friday, 18th September, at the Corby track with qualifying for rounds 17 and 18 currently timetabled to get underway at around 14.45 on Saturday, 19th September.

Both races will be held on Sunday, 20th September, with round 17 beginning proceedings at 10.00 and round 18 following at approximately 15.15. Live television coverage of the second race, at least, will be screened on Freeview, digital satellite and cable channel ITV4. Please check listings for further details.

2009 Provisional ELF Renault Clio Cup Standings (after Rd16):
1st Philip Glew, 462pts; 2nd Alex MacDowall, 351pts; 10th Daniel Lloyd, 181pts

Total Control Racing’s Daniel Lloyd secured his third top six finish of the 2009 ELF Renault Clio Cup season at Silverstone National Circuit in Northamptonshire this afternoon, Saturday, 29th August, to move back into ninth position in the championship standings following an excellent drive.

The 17-year-old, from Scammonden in West Yorkshire, displayed outstanding pace from the minute pre-race testing began on Friday and during this morning’s all-important qualifying session he was the highest placed TCR driver with a season-best fifth fastest time of 1m05.285 seconds (90.37mph), just two 10ths of a second shy of pole position.

At the start of round 15, Daniel initially got away from the third row of the grid well and looked all set to move into the top four before he received a tap to the rear of his Clio which pitched the car sideways and lost him several places. Managing to get the car pointing in the right direction nicely, he climbed back into the top six but on lap two Daniel was pushed wide at Maggotts and slipped to ninth.

Determined to get back into the top six, the TCR ace set about his recovery drive brilliantly and on lap four he posted the third quickest time of 1m05.653 seconds – faster than the best managed by either eventual race winner Dave Newsham or championship points leader Philip Glew – as he moved into eighth position.

After battling hard with Jake Packun and James Colburn during the mid part of the race, the trio trading positions more than once, Daniel emerged ahead on lap 12 and proceeded to close down fifth placed Lee Pattison. Between lap 14 and lap 17, Daniel closed the gap to Pattison from 1.2 seconds to just two 10ths of a second and just missed out on gaining another place before the finish.

Speaking after the opening race of the weekend, Daniel said: “On the first lap I got a tap from behind as we went through Becketts and Maggotts, the car was sideways but I managed to get it back in a straight line although we did lose a few places. Then I got pushed wide at the same place on the second lap so it made the first half of the race very hard work.

“Obviously a top six is a good result but it is a bit disappointing considering the pace we had, we easily had the speed to be on the podium for the first time. The car felt good and it was consistently fast all the way through the race, without the problems on the first couple of laps we’d have been able to challenge closer to the front. That’s what we intend to do tomorrow, we know we have the pace.”

With team-mate Sam Tordoff and experienced competitor Carl Bradley both failing to finish today’s encounter, Daniel has closed to within 11 points of the championship top eight and has pulled seven points clear of Bradley.

Round 16 of the 2009 ELF Renault Clio Cup will take place at Silverstone National Circuit tomorrow, Sunday, 30th August, at approximately 12.00 and will be screened live on digital satellite, cable and Freeview channel ITV4. Daniel will start the race from sixth on the grid thanks to his second best qualifying time from today of 1m05.447 seconds.

2009 Provisional ELF Renault Clio Cup Standings (after Rd15):
1st Philip Glew, 430pts; 2nd Alex MacDowall, 351pts; 9th Daniel Lloyd, 175pts

Photo by Jakob Ebrey Photography.

Daniel Lloyd was undoubtedly one of the quickest ELF Renault Clio Cup competitors at Snetterton in Norfolk over the weekend, 1st/2nd August, during the seventh race meeting of the season but a luckless qualifying session and two tricky races prevented him from making the most of his obvious pace.

The Scammonden-based championship rookie, who has been in fantastic front-running form over the course of the last few rounds, started the Snetterton weekend with blistering pace during Friday’s practice sessions with a career best Clio Cup testing performance.

Posting the third fastest time in the morning, he went on to consolidate his excellent effort with a top six lap in the afternoon, even though in the second session he only had three flying laps in which to set a quick time after problems with a cracked brake disc and a subsequent session stoppage.

Heading into Saturday’s qualifying period with deserved confidence, the West Yorkshire 17-year-old wasn’t able to replicate his stunning test pace due to a problem with the left-rear tyre on his car and so he ended up qualifying 14th fastest for round 13 and 12th on the grid for round 14.

Although disappointed with the qualifying troubles, Daniel knew he had the pace to come through into the top 10 in the races but Saturday afternoon’s opening encounter went awry at the very first corner when heavy contact from behind forced him off the track and into an immediate retirement. Marking his first non-finish of the season, the category rookie was intent on making amends in round 14.

Lining up on row six for the second race, which was screened live on ITV4 across the UK, Daniel got off the line well but on the outside around the first corner he was pushed back to 15th position. Quickly hitting back though, he gained three places in one move into Russell Chicane at the end of lap one.

Running in 12th position into the second tour, the Total Control Racing driver slipped to 13th place towards the end of the lap but struck back two laps later with an attempted move on Robert Gaffney at the Esses. On the exit, Gaffney edged back ahead but Daniel wasn’t to be denied and he moved back into the top 12 on lap seven.

With the midfield pack bunching up very tightly on lap eight out of Sear Corner , Daniel tried to move to the head of the group as the cars hurtled down Revett Straight and into the Esses but he was forced wide over the grass. Emerging out of the corner in 10th place, he pressed on and posted the fourth fastest race lap of 1m18.212 seconds on the 11th tour before grabbing ninth place from Jake Packun at the Esses two laps later.

After the race, officials adjudged Daniel to have gained an unfair advantage following his enforced lap eight excursion at the Esses and the resulting time penalty dropped him to 11th position. Even so, he still holds 10th place in the driver standings with 155 points, just 13 points behind experienced saloon car campaigner Carl Bradley.

“Obviously we’re really disappointed with how things went in qualifying having been so strong in testing, after the practice sessions we had a lot of confidence”, said Daniel, “Qualifying went completely wrong and we’re not totally sure why but I wasn’t happy with the left-rear tyre and I’m almost certain that’s where the issue was.

“The first race was a disaster but at least in the second one we scored some good points and set the fourth fastest lap, just a couple of 10ths of a second off the fastest lap of the race. We have to look at it as a positive weekend due to the pace we had in testing and race two but overall it has been pretty disappointing. We’ve managed to stay in the championship top 10 though so that’s good.”

ELF Renault Clio Cup action now takes a four week break with rounds 15 and 16 of the season taking place on 29th/30th August at Silverstone. Marking the second time this year the championship will have visited the world famous Northamptonshire venue, the eighth race meeting of the campaign will be held on the shorter National Circuit rather than the full Grand Prix layout.

2009 Provisional ELF Renault Clio Cup Standings (after Rd14):
1st Philip Glew, 402pts; 2nd Alex MacDowall, 326pts; 10th Daniel Lloyd, 155pts

Photo by Jakob Ebrey Photography.

Snetterton Circuit in Norfolk proved to be a very happy hunting ground for crack motor racing squad Total Control Racing earlier today, Saturday, 1st August, with the team winning not only round 13 of the ELF Renault Clio Cup but also the 15th and 16th rounds of the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup.

On a simply outstanding day for the Wednesbury-based outfit, Carlisle teenager Alex MacDowall claimed his third victory of the year in an action-packed and rain-shortened Clio Cup encounter and he was also joined on the podium by rookie team-mate Sam Tordoff, the Leeds racer taking his first ever podium with a superb second position and backing it up with the fastest lap of the race.

After taking pole position for round 13 with a fastest time of 1m17.872 seconds (90.23mph) during this morning’s qualifying session, at the start of the race MacDowall made a textbook start to lead as light rain started to fall and threatened to make conditions very tricky indeed.

Behind, championship leader Philip Glew managed to get ahead of Tordoff at the start – the TCR ace having qualified second on the grid – while Mike Robinson held on to his starting place of ninth.

For rapid rookie Daniel Lloyd, what started as a very positive weekend during testing soon became a luckless disappointment when he was punted out of the race at the first corner. Third fastest during the opening pre-event practice and then finishing sixth in session two, a tricky qualifying session placed him mid-grid but he was hit at Riches Corner and forced into an immediate retirement.

Following a couple of laps behind the Safety Car to enable Lloyd’s car to be retrieved, at the re-start MacDowall got away well and led in worsening conditions all the way to the Bomb Hole on lap 10 when Glew managed to slither past.

Less than a lap later though, Glew pushed too hard at the Esses to try and fend off MacDowall and got his car sideways as the TCR star moved ahead once more. He was followed through by team-mate Tordoff and the pair remained first and second to the finish on lap 14 when red flags were shown due to the increasing rainfall.

Therefore, the finishing order was taken from the positions on lap 13 which still meant MacDowall won, Tordoff was second and Robinson came through to finish in eighth position, also moving him up into the championship top five.

Commenting, MacDowall said: “The conditions were very tricky, the rain got quite bad as the race wore on and it was especially slippery at the Esses. When (Philip) Glew got by me I tried to get back at him as quickly as possible and at the Esses on the next lap he just went in too hot and I was able to get back ahead. I’m really pleased with our third win, the team did a great job with the car.”

Podium debutant Tordoff added: “It was a very hard race but I kept it all together and managed to stick with Alex (MacDowall) and Phil (Glew). It was a case of waiting for either of them to make a mistake really. We’ve had the pace all weekend and considering it’s my first year in cars, let alone in Clios, I think we’re doing a good job.”

Breeze returns to winning ways with memorable Snetterton double
Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup title challenger Carl Breeze was in totally dominant form at Snetterton today, taking three pole positions in qualifying for rounds 15, 16 and 17 of the season and backing them up with victory in the first two races.

After an unbelievably difficult couple of months, namely a huge accident at Oulton Park at the end of May and a subsequent crash at Croft in mid-June which did little to aid the healing process, Breeze arrived at his home track this weekend fully recuperated and immediately returned to winning ways.

Dominating qualifying, the TCR star pressed home his advantage with two fantastic performances in rounds 15 and 16 to close to within 27 points of current series leader Nathan Freke. Challenged fairly hard by Christian Dick in the opening encounter, the team mechanics made some changes to Breeze’s car for race two which he won by 11 seconds and in which he also posted a new lap record.

Team-mate Fulvio Mussi finished a fine fifth in round 15 after a good drive from eighth on the grid while in round 16 a potential career best finish of second place behind Breeze was taken away after Mussi was adjudged to have lined up in an incorrect position on the grid. Although taking the chequered flag in second position, a 10 second penalty was added to his time dropping him to sixth.

Danish racer Joachim Ritter, meanwhile, finished ahead of former British Touring Car Championship driver Charlie Butler-Henderson in ninth place during the first outing and managed another top 10 in round 16 to consolidate 10th overall in the championship standings.

Speaking after his double win, Breeze said: “It’s good to reward the TCR boys with a couple of wins and great to bounce back after the disappointments of Oulton and Croft. We made some changes to the car for the second race to find some more speed and the team deserves all of the credit as it gave us an extra three 10ths of a second. It’s been a great day, hopefully tomorrow will be too.”

Reflecting on TCR’s day in both the Ginetta G50 Cup and Clio Cup, TCR team principal Lee Brookes commented: “We’re absolutely made up with Carl’s two wins in the G50 races today, he performed very well indeed, and in the second race Fulvio did a great job as well. It was just a shame he was out of position on the grid at the start, he was gutted about that. Joachim had a couple of good runs too.

“In Clios it was a very bad day for Daniel, we’re so disappointed for him. On the other side of things Alex did everything right to win again and Mike took another solid finish. The day belonged to Sam though, out of all of the drivers I think he surprised people the most and to take his first podium and be on pole position for Sunday’s race is a great achievement.”

Round 14 of the ELF Renault Clio Cup is timetabled to take place at 11.55 tomorrow, Sunday, 2nd August, with round 17 of the Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup set to begin at 13.35. Please check listings for details of live television coverage on Freeview, cable and digital satellite channel ITV4.

Provisional 2009 ELF Renault Clio Cup Standings (after Rd13):
Drivers: 2nd Alex MacDowall, 302pts; 5th Mike Robinson, 195pts; 9th Sam Tordoff, 154pts; 10th Daniel Lloyd, 145pts
Team: 2nd Total Control Racing, 570pts

Provisional 2009 Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup Standings (after Rd16 – Rd11 yet to be rescheduled):
Drivers: 2nd Carl Breeze, 410pts; 5th Fulvio Mussi, 228pts; 10th Joachim Ritter, 160pts
Team: 1st Total Control Racing

Photo by Jakob Ebrey Photography.

Following on from a career best ELF Renault Clio Cup race performance in front of a record-breaking 135,000 crowd at Silverstone almost three weeks ago, promising category rookie Daniel Lloyd is setting his sights on a top six push when the action resumes at Snetterton in Norfolk on 1st/2nd August.

At the wheel of his 200+bhp Clio Cup racer, the 17-year-old from Scammonden, near Huddersfield, has been in highly impressive form over the last three race meetings where he has improved each time out and is currently a very respectable ninth overall in the standings – the highest placed newcomer.

During the Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit event at the beginning of July, where the Clio Cup acted as a support category to the international World Series by Renault championship, Daniel produced by far his most competitive race drives since graduating from the Ginetta Junior Championship with sixth and seventh place finishes in rounds 11 and 12 respectively – the former from 18th on the grid!

“Silverstone was definitely the best weekend of the year for us so far”, commented Daniel, “Things didn’t go perfectly by any means, qualifying didn’t go as planned at all, but in the races our lap times spoke for themselves. We had the second fastest lap overall in the first race so if we had been able to start inside the top 10, who knows what might have happened. Even so, sixth was a fantastic result.

“We know we have to work really hard to make sure we qualify on the first four or five rows to make the races more straightforward and if we can do that at Snetterton I’m sure we’ll have the car to fight for a couple of top sixes in the races. That’s where we’ll be aiming. We’ll also be welcoming some guests from Staffline Group Plc to Snetterton so, obviously, it’s going to be a really important event.”

Driving for West Midlands-based Total Control Racing, the most respected and successful squad in the history of the ELF Renault Clio Cup, Daniel is thriving under the tutelage of team principal Lee Brookes, a former category champion himself and a one-time leading light as a privateer entrant in the British Touring Car Championship.

Following free practice at Snetterton’s high-speed 1.95-mile track on Friday, 31st July, qualifying for rounds 13 and 14 of the ELF Renault Clio Cup is provisionally scheduled to take place at 10.55 on Saturday, 1st August, with the first race of the weekend expected to follow at around 16.30. Round 14 is then timetabled to begin at 11.55 on Sunday, 2nd August. Check listings for details of ITV4 coverage.

As stated, the Snetterton races will mark the first of the year where Daniel’s Clio Cup livery will feature Staffline Group Plc which has recently completed a buy-out of original sponsor The Workplace.

2009 Provisional ELF Renault Clio Cup Standings (after Rd12):
1st Philip Glew, 349pts; 2nd Alex MacDowall, 270pts; 9th Daniel Lloyd, 145pts

Photo by Jakob Ebrey Photography.