SENSATIONAL LLOYD ROBBED OF SECOND VW WIN AT OSCHERSLEBEN

Britain’s Daniel Lloyd produced a sensational wet-weather performance during round nine of the 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup at Oschersleben in Germany on Sunday, 18th September – but all to no avail after being punted out of the lead with less than two laps remaining.

Recovering to finish in fifth position, to add to the top six result he achieved in the dry eighth round on Saturday, the Huddersfield driver concluded the penultimate weekend of the championship fourth in the driver standings.

Although his chances of the title are now over – third place for Mateusz Lisowski on Sunday enough to give the Polish racer the 2011 crown – Daniel can still end his debut season in Europe as Vice-Champion in next month’s final race of the year at Hockenheim.

“It’s disappointing we can’t take the title but we’ve had a great season up to now and Sunday’s race was great, absolutely fantastic”, he said, “The race win was ours today, we had it done, but at least we did manage to recover and score some decent points. Second place in the championship is going to be hard but we’ll be giving it everything in the last race of the season.”

Daniel was nothing short of remarkable in the ninth round with a superbly determined display throughout, first rocketing from third on the grid into second place at the first corner and then slicing past Aditya Patel at the next turn with a brilliant piece of driving to lead.

With track conditions proving very slippery indeed, the slightest bit of contact would have a big impact and so it proved at the end of lap one when the 19-year-old was knocked out of first place at the final corner by Moritz Oestreich.

Able to recover in third place, Daniel hit back on lap three by passing Oestreich for second position and after applying serious pressure to Patel he re-took the lead on lap seven with a great overtake through the first turn.

Initially edging away from his pursuers, the West Yorkshire teenager started to come under pressure himself from a charging Ola Nilsson with three laps remaining but Daniel held his line well and retained great composure as he looked on course for the second victory of his maiden season in VW Sciroccos.

Leading on the penultimate tour everything was in control but a late, and somewhat surprising, dive by Nilsson at the chicane was only ever going to end in tears for Daniel – the resulting contact into the right-hand side of his car ramming the Briton out of the lead. Managing to recover in sixth position, he proved his fighting spirit by taking fifth off Stefano Proetto on the final lap.

“All the way through I had a mega battle with Aditya (Patel), we gave each other room and had a really good fight, so I was really annoyed to get knocked out of the lead by Ola (Nilsson)”, said Daniel, “It was a late lunge by him, I’ve never seen anyone try a pass there like that in any race at Oschersleben – it’s a place you just don’t expect it. Basically, it wasn’t on if you ask me.

“The car was good but the conditions were really tough as the track was very slippery. Our start was good, we got away well and I took the lead pretty quickly. In the race there was some really good overtaking, it was really enjoyable – just a shame it ended the way it did!”

In Saturday’s eighth round, Daniel lined up an uncharacteristic ninth on the grid and with a lot of hard work ahead. The task was made even more difficult when he was bundled back to 11th place on the opening lap but he recovered back into the top 10 by the fourth tour and pressed on in his bid to score as heavily as possible.

Up into eighth place with a couple of laps remaining, Daniel latched on to the tail of the two cars ahead and produced a truly outstanding pass three corners from home to usurp both in one very neat move to grab sixth place.

Next-up for the British ace is a return to Hockenheim in Germany for the final round of the 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup season five weeks from now on Saturday, 22nd October.

To keep up with all the latest news regarding Daniel’s participation in the VW Scirocco R-Cup, please visit his official website www.daniellloydracing.com, follow him on Twitter @Daniellloyd23 and check out his exclusive blog at the Motors TV website.

Provisional 2011 Volkswagen Scirocco R-Cup Driver Standings (after Rd9):
Champion – Mateusz Lisowski, 388pts; 2nd Ola Nilsson, 315pts; 3rd Stefano Proetto, 294pts; 4th Daniel Lloyd, 291pts