Lloyd close to BTCC return in a Hyundai for 2025

Four-time British Touring Car Championship race winner Dan Lloyd is closing in on a series return in 2025 after a season in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.

The 32-year-old Yorkshireman is hot favourite to take the seat alongside Chris Smiley at Restart Racing, which is switching to Excelr8 Motorsport-built Hyundai i30 N machinery this season.

Three of Lloyd’s BTCC race victories came in 2022 with the Excelr8 Hyundai squad, when Restart commercial chief Pete Jones was a sponsor of the team.

And Lloyd’s first success, back in 2018, came alongside Smiley at the BTC Racing Honda operation, where Restart boss Ben Taylor was an engineer.

Lloyd posted a video on Wednesday on his DLR TV YouTube channel indicating that the deal is close.

“It’s all looking extremely positive,” he told Autosport. “It’s 80% there but I’ve still got some work to do on some commercial deals.

“The last couple of years have been difficult for me, so I want to make sure I’ve got everything in place and it’s all done and dusted – I’ve still got some final meetings coming with sponsors.”

One of the major factors motivating Lloyd’s return is the opportunity to work again with friends including Taylor, the Smiley family and Jones.

“There’s going to be some really good people involved,” added Lloyd, who is undergoing therapy on a broken shoulder following an off-season accident.

“As well as that, I’ve got Tom Hunt lined up as my engineer, and he ran me in the Cupra [during Lloyd’s most recent BTCC season at Team Hard in 2023, before joining Restart to work with Scott Sumpton last year].”

Lloyd is also excited to return to the Hyundai, in which he not only enjoyed his best BTCC season to date but also suffered the biggest accident of his career at Oulton Park.

“I miss the championship; it’s the main event and I’ve had some amazing memories in it,” said Lloyd.

“I know the Hyundai, but we have some work to do to get a good set-up on it as soon as possible. We have really good people involved and I know that we can do that.”