Lloyd hails 'awesome' maiden BTCC victory

BTC Norlin Racing's Dan Lloyd has hailed the significance of his maiden British Touring Car Championship race victory after dominating the final reverse grid race at Croft.

The Honda Civic Type-R driver produced a stunning lights-to-flag victory from pole position to also hand BTC Norlin Racing their maiden BTCC race win in only his second weekend with the team.

Lloyd replaced James Nash for the Oulton Park two-weeks ago but was caught up in the huge race three shunt during that meeting, which also took out his team mate Chris Smiley.

Following that destructive third Oulton race, Lloyd said winning the final Croft race was the perfect way to repay the Honda squad for their hard work in repairing the Civic Type-Rs.

"It was awesome! When you’re in the zone and you know everything is going right you just crack on," Lloyd told Crash.net.

"I was really confident going into the race. I wasn’t nervous at all. I was so focused on what I need to do. I’m so happy it all went to plan.

"I was just praying there wasn’t going to be a safety car after pulling that sort of gap. It’s just mega to repay the team for all their hard work since Oulton Park. The cars were demolished."

Although Lloyd managed to take the win by a comfortable 5.5s margin, the Honda Civic Type-R driver admitted the pace of Motorbase Performance's Tom Chilton in second caused a brief moment of worry.

"I was worried at the beginning. My plan was to push hard at the start and get track position. Tom [Chilton] was keeping up with me," Lloyd continued.

"I was hoping he wasn’t taking it easy to save the tyres whilst I was pushing. I would’ve been in trouble but it was clear he was pushing as well.

"As soon as I got a gap it gave me a lot of confidence to keep going."