Top Welsh racing driver Hywel Lloyd has returned to the land of his fathers to tune up for this weekend’s latest Formula Three International Series event at Rockingham.
The 26-year-old driver brought his Chinese-backed Sino Vision Racing team up from Silverstone to Anglesey’s Trac Mon for a final run out after a month-long lay-off.
He blasted his Dallara Mercedes round the two-mile circuit near Aberffraw to try and iron out some of the problems he had at Spa at the end of July.
And Lloyd, from Corwen, was delighted with how his two days testing went: “It’s a long time since I’ve been up to Anglesey.” He said: “That was back when I was competing in Formula Renault but it’s really come on.
“It’s an excellent facility and it offers a bit of everything for the driver which is ideal because we needed to get the car ready not just for Rockingham but also for our trips to Donington and Silverstone.
“We’ve been working on tweaking a few things to do with the set-up and just trying to squeeze a few tenths of seconds out of the car.
“We’ve learned a bit and we’re really pleased with how it went and I’m sure we’ll be back here in future.”
It did the trick back in the days when Lloyd was in Formula Renault as he took the British title in 2007 and he’ll be hoping for some of that magic to rub off on him again at Rockingham.
He said: “We have done quite a lot of work at Rockingham this year and I’ve raced there a few times so I know it very well.
“It does have a banked oval circuit but we only use part of that track and it’s generally very good, very challenging and quite tricky so we need to use a lot of downforce.
“That’s what keeps you from sliding around on fast corners because if you’re going sideways you’re going slower.
“At Rockingham we need more downforce than at any of the other circuits so that means maiing a few alterations to the set up.
“Basically if I drove the car down the main road in Corwen there would be so much downforce we’d rip all the manhole covers out but that’s what lets you go through fast corners at 150mph.”
Lloyd was an impressive sixth fastest in official practice at Rockingham earlier in the season and so his team know what works at the Northamptonshire circuit and are looking forward to the challenge.
Lloyd’s last race ended in disaster when Brazilian Yann Cunha collided with him and sent him spinning into the barriers at 130mph and the Welshman is hoping for better luck this time.
After Rockingham the F2 International caravan heads for Donington on September 24 and 25 before the series finishes at Silverstone on October 8 and 9.
Highlights of the meeting at Rockingham are on Channel 4 at 7am on Saturday, September 10, and on Motors TV at 7.25pm the same day, repeated at various times.
For more on Hywel Lloyd go to www.f3racing.co.uk
