Welsh racing driver Hywel Lloyd bounced back from a Brand Hatch double whammy to get among the points in the Formula Three International Series.
The 26-year-old from Corwen was caught in a double-decker sandwich in the second race of the meeting at the Kent circuit after limping out of the first race four laps from the end.
But Lloyd fought back to gun his Dallara Mercedes car to seventh place in the final race of the meeting after he and his Sino Vision Racing team worked wonders to get his car onto the starting grid.
Lloyd qualified in 12th place for the rain-affected first race and after a pit stop to switch to slick tyres as the circuit dried out he was charging through the field when he spun on a damp patch, caught the kerb and was forced out of the race with suspension damage.
He said: “I was really going for it to try to get into the points and just pushed a bit too hard – I was gutted when I found out that two of the drivers in front of me were under penalty which would have pushed me up to tenth and into the points.
“All I had to do was keep my nose clean over the last four laps and I’d have been there and to make matters worse they did the draw for grid positions in Race Two afterwards and tenth place drew pole position.
“Considering I was down in 18th place I was pretty gutted for a while but you just have to get on with it.”
Things got worse for Lloyd in Race Two which, for him, lasted less than 100 yards: “I didn’t even get out of first gear,” he said: “I got a good start and so did the car alongside me. Unfortunately the two cars in front didn’t and we had four cars trying to get through a narrow space.
“Fahmi Ilyas was forced across and he hit me and broke my right suspension and that was that – apart from us having to battle to get the car ready for the afternoon race.”
That went more smoothly with Lloyd quickly away in wet conditions and with more rain midway through the race and he worked his way up to seventh: “It was pretty difficult because of the rain and the spray.
“The visibility was very poor and the spray really hangs around in the wooded part of the circuit – you’re driving on instinct really.
“You just have to judge where you are on the track and try not to make any mistakes because we’re still in sixth gear most of the way and doing speeds of up to 140mph.”
Lloyd and his team now have only a ten-day break before the next meeting at Germany’s legendary Nurburgring – where he has never driven before but he plans to do something about that next week.
“We’re driving across on Tuesday because you can actually pay to drive the circuit so when I get there I’ll hire a performance car and have a crack at it – in the meantime the Playstation Three will be getting some attention because the Nurburgring is on there too.”
Television coverage of the Brands Hatch meeting will be on Channel 4 at 7am this Sunday, June 25, and on Motors TV at 4.25pm the same day.
For more on Hywel Lloyd go to www.f3racing.co.uk
