ROOKIE racer Daniel Lloyd finished the opening race meeting of the 2009 ELF Renault Clio Cup season with a top seven finish.

The Scammonden teenager impressed on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit with his top seventh place finish being the second highest result of the rookie drivers.

Battling hard with a number of more experienced competitors throughout the second round of the new campaign, Lloyd produced a strong performance in only his second race outing in Clios to finish a mere three tenths of a second outside the coveted top six.

His efforts were also beamed live to the nation on ITV4 as part of the channel’s coverage of the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship race package and added to the 14th place finish he achieved during round one the previous day – leaving the 17-year-old eighth in the driver standings.

“I’m really happy with the result, I know I drove a lot better than during the first round as I’m starting to get more used to this style of racing,” said Team Pyro racer Lloyd.

“I think in Saturday’s race I defended too much which stopped me from going forward. In the second round I concentrated on pushing forward and it worked.

“You can’t make any mistakes in Clios, if you do you lose a load of positions.

“The reason I managed to get past (Andrew) Herron early on was because he ran wide at Graham Hill Bend, it’s so hard to pass at Brands Hatch Indy but we did a good job.

“Hopefully for the next round I can qualify a bit better.”

After a great debut weekend in the ELF Renault Clio Cup, Daniel now has a three week break until the third and fourth rounds of the season at Thruxton Circuit in Hampshire on April 25-26.

The 2009 Provisional ELF Renault Clio Cup standings (after Round 2): 1st Philip Glew, 66pts; 2nd Alex MacDowall, 55pts; 8th Daniel Lloyd, 23pts