Hywel’s race against time for Rockingham — F3 Racing with Hywel Lloyd

Hywel’s race against time for Rockingham

Racing driver Hywel Lloyd and his CF Racing team face a race against time this week to get their Dallara Mugen-Honda car ready for Sunday’s Formula Three International Championship double-header at Rockingham.

The 24-year-old from Corwen has been keenly awaiting the arrival of a new engine that should lift him up the grid this weekend – if it can be installed in time.

The new Mugen-Honda engine, a lighter, more powerful version, could get the young Welshman back in contention in a crucial week for his hopes.

He is at Rockingham this Sunday for two races and a week later is at legendary Hockenheim in Germany so there’s a lot of work to be done in a short space of time.

The new engine was due to arrive from Neil Brown Engineering this week and with Hywel and his team setting out for Rockingham on Thursday time is tight.

“You can change an engine in 45 minutes normally,” explained Hywel: “But with this being a brand new one it’s a bit more complicated – it’s not just a straight swap.

“It means that we’ll have to make the final adjustments in practice on Friday rather than have everything set before we go down.”

The new engine is more powerful and, crucially, lighter which will give Hywel’s team more flexibility in weight distribution on the car.

He said: “It should be better which means we should be quicker and so it’s going to be exciting running it for the first time on Friday.

“We’ll be there that day for testing and then hopefully it will be ready for qualifying on Saturday when we need a good performance.

“We were happy with how things went at Oulton Park and getting in the points first tiem out was a brilliant result for us in our first season but Silverstone didn’t work out.

“We had problems and by the time we worked them out it was too late but getting the new engine now is a boost for us and gives everyone a real lift.

“We’re going to have to work hard to get everything right though – it’s going to mean some long days - and nights – in the workshop.”

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