Birthday boy Hywel closes in on leaders — F3 Racing with Hywel Lloyd

Birthday boy Hywel closes in on leaders

Birthday boy Hywel Lloyd will celebrate his 24th putting his racing car back together again.

The Formula Three International Class newcomer’s Dallara Mugen Honda car is currently stripped down after a tough shakedown at this week’s official practice at Oulton Park. But Lloyd and his CF Racing team believe they’re closing in on the pacesetters as the testing caravan prepares to move on to Rockingham and Silverstone. “We had a good couple of days at Oulton Park,” said Lloyd who stepped up to the International Class after finishing third in the National Class in his debut season in F3 last year. “We’ve learned a lot about the car but we’ve still got a long way to go before we’re up at the sharp end of the grid.” Lloyd was 12th fastest overall at Oulton Park but encouragingly after trailing the leaders by more than three seconds on the first day of testing, he was closing on them with every lap on Day Two.

He finally finished just over a second down and said: “The new aero package is new to us but I think we’ve got a basic set-up now that we can work on. “We’ve also tried a few things with the engine and they seem to be working as well so we’re headed in the right direction.” The car will be rebuilt for the trip to Rockingham for a day’s testing and then it will return to Corwen for further adjustments before they take it to Silverstone on Friday. CF Racing Team Manager Harry Lloyd, Hywel’s father, said: “We’re making good progress and have closed the gap on where we were and we’ve got to know the car better. “The other teams didn’t really improve their times on the second day but we did and Hywel was going faster and faster all the time. “We’ve got more testing to come at Rockingham and Silverstone as well as Oulton Park on the Friday before the first race and that should mean we’ll be competitive.”

The opening race of the season takes place at Oulton Park, near Chester, on Easter Monday, April 13.