A promising podium bid for Huddersfield’s Daniel Lloyd came to an abrupt end during round six of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship when the Oman Racing Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 was forced to retire early at Brands Hatch (August 1/2).
Heading into the two hour race on the iconic Brands Hatch GP loop, Lloyd and his Oman Racing Team partner Ahmad Al Harthy were expecting a tough race from the packed GT3 grid, but an excellent job by the duo during Saturday’s qualifying session saw them well placed for a podium challenge, with an 8th place start for Sunday’s two hour contest.
Al Harthy took the opening stint and set an encouraging pace in the opening laps, moving the #2 Vantage up into fourth before contact from an errant rival forced the Aston into the pits to repair the resulting rear left-hand puncture.
The Motorbase pit crew did a sterling job to get the Aston back out on track quickly with Al Harthy managing to re-join the race in eleventh. An initial push from the Omani-based driver quickly saw him breaking into the top ten before the Vantage lost all drive – believed to be a result of the earlier damage – and the #2 Aston was unfortunately unable to finish the race with Lloyd looking on frustrated from the team garage.
“A really frustrating weekend again for us in the British GT;” said Lloyd. “Brands is always a tough round on the calendar but we had the pace in the car and had a good shot at a podium from eighth on the grid. It was always going to be a big ask with the extra weight on-board but Ahmad did a great job at the start of the race and it looked like our luck might be changing before he got hit.”
“It’s the most frustrating feeling to not even get the chance to get in the car, but everyone did what they could, it was just one of those weekends;” Lloyd added.
Despite the challenging weekend, Lloyd and Al Harthy retain a comfortable lead in the Silver Cup standings with the dup currently sixth in the overall championship, just half a point off the fifth place spot.
The British GT Championship now has a short break before reconvening at Norfolk’s Snetterton circuit on August 22/23.