Paul closes championship gap on tragic weekend

Paul has closed the gap on current points leader Ed Pead with in rounds 9 and 10 of the championship at Thruxton. However, the weekend – which sees the Clio Cup race away from the BTCC package for the only time this year – was marred by the death of Kevin Lloyd in a racing accident in Saturday’s round nine.

“It’s a real shock”, commented Paul. “Kevin was a great character in the paddock, really someone that was well-loved and always out to have a good time. He will be sorely missed by a lot of people”.

The race, late on Saturday afternoon, was red flagged as soon as it became apparent there had been a serious incident. Despite attention from the circuit doctors, Kevin succumbed to his injuries.

After consultation with teams and drivers, it was decided that the meeting would continue as planned on Sunday, with a minute’s silence ahead of round 10.

In the declared result on Saturday, Paul finished in fifth position, with Jonathan Adam taking the win. Paul said: “In Saturday’s race, I worked my way back up through the field fairly well after I got tagged by Vince Martin near the start. I made it back up to third, but I was fifth on countback after the red flags. I think I was down in about 16th at one point!”

Starting 8th on the grid for Sunday’s race, after a disappointing qualifying session, it was very much an up and down race for Paul: “I started quite a way back in 8th so that made it fairly difficult from the start. There was a pile-up at the Complex that I managed to avoid, and I got up to 2nd but then dropped back down to 10th. I came back up through the field again and I finished 2nd in the end, so it’s not too bad.”

“Jim Edwards Jr finished third, and I passed him twice during the race. I think I passed pretty much the whole field twice actually!”

“Ed Pead was in the pits at one point and then he came out and he was fighting with the leading group as if he was on the lead lap. It wasn’t really on.”

The championship now takes a break of almost two months, with the second half of the season getting under way at Croft on the weekend of 24th/25th July.

“It’s actually been a pretty good weekend in terms of the championship”, added Paul. “I think that things are looking fairly good now. With the dropped scores to come in at the end of the year, I can still have a couple of bad results and it won’t matter too much. Ed [Pead] can only really have one more, and I think Jonathon [Adam] has used up all his chances really. So it looks quite good for the second half of the season.”

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