2018 TCR UK Touring Car Championship leader Daniel Lloyd has secured his third straight pole position of the season at the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent after a late effort propelled the WestCoast Racing driver to the top of the timesheets.
Lloyd set his fastest time on his last run during Qualifying with a lap of 48.483 seconds around the Indy Circuit, going three tenths of a second faster than Ollie Taylor. The Pyro Motorsport driver has moved to the newer 2018 Honda Civic for the rest of the season and will start alongside Lloyd on the front row.
Ollie Taylor has qualified his brand new 2018 Honda Civic on the front row at Brands Hatch. Credit: BRSCC / TCR UK Series
“It was a difficult session. We had a few unexpected characteristics with the car and we had to make a few tweaks during the session, so it wasn’t straightforward,” explained Lloyd after the session.
“We tweaked it perfectly and got the tyre usage and the peak of the tyre spot on. I’m really happy with my lap, again we just really hooked it together at the end. I’ll do the best I can tomorrow, try and nail everything and hopefully the results will come.”
Lewis Kent hauled the Hyundai into fourth place in the grid depsite recent BoP changes that have hampered the cars performance. Credit: BRSCC / TCR UK series
The second row of the grid sees Andreas Backman in third place ahead of an impressive performance by Lewis Kent in the Essex and Kent Motorsport run Hyundai i30 N TCR.
Recent changes to the Balance of Performance have affected the local driver’s car however he is up for the challenge of taking a good points haul on Sunday. Jessica Backman completes the top five places in the third WestCoast Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR.
Josh Price is well placed inside the top six to spring another surprise after his Knockhill performances and is ahead of Finlay Crocker in the second Pyro Motorsport Honda Civic. Robert Gilmour was the fastest of the DPE Motorsport Alfa Romeos in eighth place.
Carl Swift is on pole position for race two at Brands Hatch. Credit: BRSCC / TCR UK Series
The fifth row is an all Maximum Motorsport affair with Stewart Lines heading Carl Swift. Both drivers have now made the switch to a sequential gearbox from a DSG unit, and Swift will start the second race from a reverse-grid pole position.
Sean Walkinshaw Racing’s Howard Fuller marked his return to the series with eleventh place, half a second clear of Alex Morgan as the Renault Megane TCR makes its competitive debut in the UK. Darelle Wilson lines up in thirteenth with Derek Palmer set to round out the field after a mechanical issue prevented his Alfa Romeo Giulietta from setting a fast lap.
