Bidford's Power Maxed Racing celebrates multiple podiums at Silverstone

AFTER a British Touring Car Championship season blighted with bad luck, Power Maxed Racing finally had something to celebrate as Dan Lloyd claimed two podiums at Silverstone.

Buoyed by the car's performance at Croft, the Bidford-based team had high hopes for rounds 22, 23 and 24 of the championship.

TOCA decided to bring the top ten showdown back for Silverstone, meaning the top ten drivers from the initial 30-minute qualifying would return to the track immediately for a ten-minute showdown to decide their running order for race one.

The initial session would see Lloyd come home seventh, with team-mate Jason Plato just behind in eighth, less than 0.3s off pole. The showdown would see the results change slightly, with Lloyd bringing his Vauxhall Astra home in fifth, 0.2s off pole, with Plato less than 0.3s behind that to round out the top ten.

For race one Lloyd put in a stellar drive to finish third for his first podium of the day while Plato would cross the line tenth.

Race two proved to be a more difficult affair for Lloyd, who crossed the chequered flag in 12th after lining up third on the grid. Meanwhile, Plato did not have much luck either, as he came home in 11th.

The reverse grid draw put Plato on pole for race three, with Lloyd down in 12th.

However, a technical infringement on the Honda of Josh Cook would see him disqualified from the race two results, meaning Lloyd would now start on pole, with Plato just behind him in second.

Lloyd would round off the weekend with another place on the podium, coming home second, while Plato finished in sixth to pick up more valuable points for the team.

Team principal Adam Weaver said: "I couldn’t be happier with the results from this weekend.

"We’ve had so much bad luck this year, and it was great to be able to get on the podium not once but twice this weekend, especially in front of some of our biggest partners.

"The result across social media has been fantastic, with people seeing that the car is far from “past it".

"In fact, Jason’s is the newest car on the grid, having been freshly built for this season. Hopefully we can carry the momentum into Donington and to Brands Hatch, and bring home some more trophies."

PMR left Silverstone fifth in the independent teams championship, with Plato ninth and Lloyd 11th in the independents standings.

The BTCC heads to Donington Park on 9th-10th October.