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USA
Race report

Craft-Bamboo Racing endure tough weekend in Thailand to score points

Daniel Lloyd fought his way into the points in race one

Daniel Lloyd, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR

Daniel Lloyd, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR

TCR media

James Nash, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR
Daniel Lloyd, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR
James Nash, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR
James Nash, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR, Jean-Karl Vernay, Leopard Racing Team WRT, Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR
James Nash, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR, Rob Huff, Leopard Racing Team WRT, Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR
Daniel Lloyd, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR
James Nash, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR
Daniel Lloyd, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR
Daniel Lloyd, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT Leon TCR
James Nash, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR
Pepe Oriola, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR
Daniel Lloyd, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR, James Nash, Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing, SEAT León TCR

Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing endured a tough weekend in Buriram, Thailand, but put in a strong performance to score some championship points that have kept them in the running for the teams’ championship title in second place.

Pepe Oriola was in fine form and showing good pace on the final lap of race one before a gearbox issue ruled him out for the rest of the weekend and shattered his chance of finishing in P2.

James Nash put in an excellent qualifying lap to start second for race one before being forced to retire with a driveshaft failure, although the team did a fantastic job to get him back on the grid for race two where he was able to finish in P7.

Daniel Lloyd fought his way into the points in race one, charging from P14 to P9 over the 14 lap race. The #17 driver did his all in race two but couldn’t quite find the same speed he had shown in race one, just finishing outside the top ten with P11.

Lukoil Craft-Bamboo now looks ahead to Zhejiang for the penultimate round of the season to claw back some points in the teams’ standings before the final round in Abu Dhabi in November.

Quotes

Richard Coleman, CEO of Craft-Bamboo Racing: "It was a very challenging weekend for the team, James did a hell of lap to get us onto the front row for race one but despite the one lap pace of the car being good, we still don't have the straight line speed to race the other cars. I think it is clear to see that the BoP is not correct. Altoe is a good up and coming driver and a good rookie but he was trying to compete for points in the VW and in his first weekend in a Honda he is on the podium. I think it is time for the championship to move towards a circuit specific BoP. The failures that we had are very costly to our teams' championship bid and it is hugely frustrating. James experienced a driveshaft failure on the Saturday but we had another failure during race one. Pepe had a gearbox failure in race one and we still don't have the information to fully understand this yet. A hugely difficult weekend and with all the hard work put in by the team and drivers, they deserve more."

Daniel Lloyd, #17: “Overall I am pretty disappointed with the weekend, it is the worst pace I have had so far since joining the team, so it was a real struggle. I made a few places up in race one but we were struggling for straight line speed. Unfortunately, for race two it seemed like it got worse, so I just kept clean and stayed out of trouble but I couldn’t keep up with the other guys who kept pulling away from me. Massive thank you to the team for putting in the hard work in extreme conditions, so huge thanks to the guys for that as it is hugely appreciated.”

James Nash, #54: “Not the two races we had planned for sadly. Despite the driveshaft failure yesterday we managed to get the car onto the front row and we were confident that we'd have the pace to seize the initiative from the start. We've made cracking starts elsewhere but had no answer today when others drove past me. Thereafter we were working off-plan."

"Another driveshaft failure side-lined me in race one at half-distance and later in race two I had to work very hard indeed to keep Huffy in the VW in particular behind me. Until we strip down the car and take a proper look we don't know why we lost so much pace compared to race one but there has to be a reason because neither me nor the team came out all this way to make up the numbers, which is what we found ourselves doing today."

Pepe Oriola, #74: “I am really sad and disappointed after the performance I showed in race one. Retiring at the end of race one when I was running in second after starting sixth was really difficult for me and the whole team. With a reasonable race two, we could have been in the championship fight in both the teams’ and the drivers’ championship. We will work hard to fight back at the next round in China. “

Craft-Bamboo Racing

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