Lloyd holds off Turkington for emotional home victory

EXCELR8 Motorsport's Dan Lloyd took a popular and emotional home British Touring Car Championship race victory after holding off four-time champion Colin Turkington during race one at Croft.

Lloyd and Turkington's battle for the race victory marks a miraculous upturn in fortunes for the pair after both drivers were involved in a nasty high-impact shunt at Oulton Park just two weeks to go.

Both EXCELR8 Motorsport and West Surrey Racing rallied to get their drivers on the grid, with the Hyundai outfit rebuilding Lloyd's heavily damaged i30N challenger, while the Team BMW squad had to rebuild an older BMW 330e M Sport chassis for their four-time champion Turkington.

With Turkington starting the race from pole position, Lloyd immediately latched onto the rear of the Team BMW driver by turn one after making the jump from third to second.

As Turkington struggled to build tyre temperature on the opening lap, Lloyd seized his chance and blasted around the outside of the BMW on the approach to the Jim Clark Esses.

From that point onwards, during what proved to be a safety car dominated race, Lloyd didn't put a foot wrong.

The safety car was called upon on two occasions after Ollie Jackson and Aron Taylor-Smith both saw their races end in the tyre wall.

Each restart presented an opportunity for Lloyd to stretch his advantage slightly as Turkington's BMW regained tyre temperature.

However, Lloyd's position in the lead of the race came under severe jeopardy during the final two laps, where Turkington ramped up the pressure in the final sector of the lap.

The four-time champion pulled alongside Lloyd heading towards the Complex, but the Hyundai driver was inch perfect in the defence of his position and crossed the line 0.3s ahead of Turkington to secure a second career BTCC win.

Team Dynamics Honda's Dan Rowbottom completed the podium in third after holding off a last-lap attack from Tom Ingram in fourth.

Jake Hill completed the top-five order in fifth ahead of defending three-time champion Ash Sutton in sixth.

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Rory Butcher enjoyed a profitable opening race to finish in seventh after starting from 11th.

Fresh off the back of his first podium finish of the year at Oulton Park, Aiden Moffat posted a strong result in eighth, while George Gamble and Tom Chilton completed the top-ten in ninth and tenth.