Flying Welshman Hywel Lloyd hopes the drought in the south east of England breaks this weekend as he heads for Brands Hatch in Kent for the latest round of the Formula Three International Series.
Wales’s fastest man proved himself one of the swiftest in the rain at F3’s official practice at Rockingham last week.
The 26-year-old from Corwen made light of the slippery conditions to post a time that stood as the quickest for most of a rain-affected session and was only beaten as the track dried out.
Point proved, Lloyd’s Sino Vision Racing team switched tactics and tried out some different set-ups for Brands Hatch and were eventually 11th quickest overall in the practice.
Lloyd said: “It’s on race day and in qualifying that it counts so we’re quite happy with how it went at Rockingham.
“We did very well in the rain which always makes things tricky and we’ll be ready for it if it rains down at Brands but I’m not really bothered – we’ll race whatever the conditions.
“I’ve been getting my hands dirty getting the car ready for Brands Hatch and I do enjoy helping out there – it’s something I’ve always done and it helps the engineers if they’ve got a driver who knows how his car works.”
Lloyd has won at Brands Hatch before but in recent years the great circuit which used to share the British Grand Prix with Silverstone, has been less than a happy hunting ground and he’s hoping that drought ends as well.
“I won in Formula Renault there,” he said: “But we’ve struggled in the last couple of years. We’ve got a much better car now though so I hope we’re going to wipe out some of those bad memories.
“We’ve got confidence in the car and in our race pace but qualifying here will be crucial because there aren’t many opportunities to pass unless it’s raining.
“It is fast though. You’re in sixth gear almost the whole way round and you have to be very precise in your driving.
“It’s a special place and anyone who is anyone in motor racing has driven here so it’s a fantastic circuit to be at and we feel we’ve been making real progress, we’ve had a few top tens and we think we can do well again this weekend.”
The circuit pays homage to the greats of British motorsport, there’s a Jim Clark Curve, a Graham Hill Bend and a Jack Brabham Straight and John Surtees, Mike Hailwood and Barry Sheene are all commemorated there while the final British Grand Prix to be held there was won by Nigel Mansell in 1986.
It’s also the last race in the UK before the F3 International Series heads off to Europe for a swing through some of the great names of Grand Prix racing with events at Germany’s Nurburgring, France’s Paul Ricard Circuit and Spa in Belgium.
Lloyd is looking forward to that, especially the Nurburgring where he has never driven before and is planning a pre-race visit to tackle the German circuit’s famous Nordschleife – Northern Loop – a 13-mile tour on public roads which costs 24 euros (£21.16) a lap.
The Nurburgring event is on the weekend of July 2 and 3 but for the moment Lloyd’s focus is on Brands Hatch with practice on Friday ahead of the all-important qualifying on Saturday morning followed by the first race in the afternoon with the final two races on Sunday.
Television coverage will be the following weekend on Channel 4 at 7am on Sunday, June 25, and on Motors TV at 4.25pm the same day.
For more on Hywel Lloyd go to www.f3racing.co.uk
