Daniel Lloyd said that he was “kicking himself” after an incident with Colin Turkington in the opening Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship race at Croft.
The Eurotech Racing driver made a strong start from the front row to challenge pole-sitter Turkington heading into Clervaux for the first time, but contact between the two saw Lloyd spin into the gravel trap.
“He seemed to be very deep and late into the corner”, Turkington said of the incident when talking to TCF afterwards, the double champion continuing without damage to win the opening race of the day.
“Obviously I was on the inside and it doesn’t take much to go off. It’s a long race, so I was just happy that I didn’t have bad damage after that.”
Lloyd on the other hand was magnanimous afterwards, saying that he was caught out by the rapid start he made from the front row of the grid.
“That’s the highs and lows of motorsport”, said Lloyd. “I’m kicking myself as I wasn’t expecting to get off the line so well. It was the best start I’ve ever had but it forced me to take the outside line.
“It’s horrible out there as you have two options; go for it or stay wide and then let everyone fly past down your inside. In hindsight I should have taken the latter choice. It was just one of those things.”
Turkington said that the FWD cars may have narrowed their deficit from standing starts, something that he feels Subaru will improve over the second half of the season.
He added to TCF: “We’ve seen that the FWD cars have been very strong off the starts this year. We’re still working on our procedure that get off the line well, but that will get better as the season progresses.”
