SINGLE-SEATER rookie Daniel Lloyd came within mere yards of a maiden podium finish during the third round of the 2010 BF Goodrich/Skip Barber National Championship in the USA.
With an outstanding drive through the order from 12th on the grid, the 18-year-old Scammonden racer produced a superb race performance at Florida’s 3.7-mile Sebring International Raceway to finish the first of the event’s two Skip Barber encounters in an excellent fifth position.
Although disappointed not to have qualified higher than the sixth row of the grid, Lloyd made a tremendous start and by the end of lap two he was into the top three and challenging hard in the tightly-bunched lead group of six cars.
Heading into the final lap, the reigning ELF Renault Clio Winter Cup Champion had moved into second place and looked well on course for his debut podium since making the transition to single-seaters little more than a month ago.
On the run around the last turn though, three of Daniel’s fellow front-runners managed to benefit from the ‘draft’ of his car and managed to slip-stream him just before the line to sneak past and push him back to a nonetheless impressive fifth position.
“Obviously I’m disappointed not to have managed to take my first podium but the race was absolutely fantastic, I really enjoyed it and fifth place is still a great result”, said Daniel.
“I’m getting more and more used to this style of racing, it’s a lot of fun and totally different to anything I’ve experienced before.
“Now I’m really looking forward to fighting hard again for the podium.”
