Dan Lloyd claimed his first Porsche Carrera Cup GB victory of the season as he won the opening race of the weekend at Thruxton.
In a race full of drama the 21 year old from Huddersfield delivered a faultless drive to win by just over two seconds from Jonas Gelzinis, with championship leader Dean Stoneman third.
As the lights went out, Lloyd made a better start from second on the grid than pole-sitter Michael Meadows and went around the outside of him to immediately take the lead. Things got worse for defending champion Meadows, as he came under pressure from Stoneman on the run towards the Complex for the first time. The pair made contact and Meadows was sent spinning to the rear of the field.
Gelzinis took full advantage of this incident to sweep into second place, with Stoneman third and Rory Butcher fourth, having started from the back of the grid after electing to take a new set of tyres for the race due to ruining one of his two allocated sets in qualifying.
On lap three Butcher passed Stoneman for third before pulling an excellent overtaking manoeuvre on Gelzinis for second at the chicane on lap five.
Butcher was soon on the tail of Lloyd but the Team Parker Racing driver didn’t buckle under pressure and maintained his lead of the race.
With six laps remaining Butcher’s pace began to fade as a slow puncture struck, which allowed Lloyd to streak clear.
Gelzinis and Stoneman re-passed the Scot who four laps from the end crashed out as his damaged tyre cried enough and pitched him off the circuit at Goodwood.
Back at the front Lloyd stroked it home to win for the second consecutive year at the Hampshire track.
He said: “It’s absolutely fantastic to get the first win of the season under my belt. Towards the end I had a lot of oversteer and I was tip-toeing round.”
Gelzinis was happy with second after having slight contact with Butcher during their battle early on in the race which damaged his steering, while Stoneman was a solitary third.
Victor Jiminez was fourth overall and as a result won Pro-Am1, with main category rival Dan De Zille fifth.
Meadows limped home in sixth ahead of his team mate Richard Kent seventh with Yucel Ozbek eighth, and third in Pro-Am1.
For the full race classification, see here.
