Dan Lloyd took victory in a British Touring Car Championship opener at Silverstone that was abbreviated by a fire for Nicolas Hamilton.
Lloyd was the last of four leaders during a thrilling opening two laps, and was holding on at the front when Hamilton parked beside the Wellington Straight as an oil fire took hold of his Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra Leon on the 17th lap of the intended 24.
Mercifully, the disabled Hamilton was able to clamber out of the Cupra unaided, and the race ran out with the competitors circulating behind the safety car.
Daryl DeLeon made a good getaway from pole position aboard his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport, while team-mate Jake Hill attempted to round the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of front-row qualifier Gordon Shedden at Copse Corner.
That served only to allow Lloyd a run at Hill, and the Restart Racing Hyundai i30 N Fastback moved into third position at Becketts.
Shedden then attacked leader DeLeon, the two running side by side at Copse on the second lap. Lloyd followed the Toyota past the BMW, which then locked up at Becketts and dropped to fifth.
Straight away Lloyd hunted down Shedden, diving down the inside of the Brooklands left-hander to grab the lead.
Tom Ingram, Team Vertu Hyundai i30N
Photo by: JEP
A couple of fastest laps allowed Lloyd to eke out a margin, before Hill passed Shedden for second place at Copse Corner on the fifth lap and began to home in on the leading Hyundai.
The gap ebbed and flowed depending on TOCA Turbo Boost usage, with Lloyd having the full 12 laps of deployment to the nine of Hill.
By the time the safety car emerged, Lloyd had two laps left of TTB, with Hill on just one and Shedden armed with three, the Scot speculating that “it could have been quite fruity between the three of us” had the race run its course.
While this was the fifth victory of Lloyd’s BTCC career, it was the first for Restart Racing, the Independent team that only entered the series at the beginning of 2024.
“This one’s just as, if not more, special to be honest,” said a tearful Lloyd. “I’m very, very emotional as I always am. It’s been a tough year, but we’ve kept going and going.
“It was a mega start to the race. I’d love it to have not finished behind the safety car, but I don’t care in the end!”
Senna Proctor ran with the leading trio for the first half of the race in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai, but then dropped back and, by the time of the safety car, he was having to fend off the WSR BMW of Aiden Moffat.
Daryl DeLeon, WSR BMW 330i M Sport
Photo by: JEP
In turn, Moffat had Josh Cook’s Speedworks Toyota on his rear bumper, Cook recovering from a nerf from Proctor at Becketts on the opening lap.
In the wake of the leading six cars, all on soft Goodyear ‘option’ tyres, came the leading medium-shod runners: championship leader Tom Ingram and main rival Ash Sutton.
Dan Rowbottom flew the medium standard in the early laps, running as high as fifth in his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST while team-mate Sutton and the Excelr8 Hyundai of Ingram fought through from their mid-grid starting positions.
Ingram used a Becketts clash between Sutton and Charles Rainford to leapfrog the four-time champion, but Sutton was right behind before the race went under the safety car. The result means Ingram has inched his championship-leading margin out from 32 points to 33.
The top 10 was completed by Rowbottom and Adam Morgan (Excelr8 Hyundai). DeLeon faded to 13th in the results, with a tyre blowing out after the finish.
BTCC Silverstone – Race 1 results
Read the full article here