Richard Lloyd bei Flugzeugabsturz ums Leben gekommen

[Tick]

Former British Touring Car racer David Leslie and sportscar team boss Richard Lloyd were among five people killed in a plane crash in Kent this afternoon, according to sources close to Autosport.

Their private Cessna Citation 501 aircraft was headed for the south of France where Leslie was due to drive Lloyd's Apex Motorsport Jaguar XKR in an FIA GT3 equalisation test at Nogaro tomorrow.

The pilot made a mayday call to Biggin Hill Airfield, near Farnborough, reporting severe engine vibrations, but the plane crashed into the corner of a housing estate seconds later. The plane's two pilots and three passengers were killed, but nobody on the ground was injured.


Richard Lloyd, 1945-2008

Sunday, March 30th 2008, 21:48 GMT



Richard Lloyd enjoyed incredible success both as a driver and a team boss during his four decades in motorsport.

He started racing in 1967 in a Triumph TR4 and went on to become a three times class title winner in the British Touring Car Championship as he established himself as one of the leading drivers in the series. In 1977 he expanded his repertoire by creating his own team - GTi Engineering.

The following season was his most successful in the BTCC as a driver, finishing second overall in the championship in a self-developed Volkswagen Golf GTi.

The team continued to run in the BTCC until 1980 - famously running Stirling Moss in an Audi 80 that year - before moving into sportscars in 1981. Lloyd and tin-top legend Andy Rouse claimed a class win in the Brands Hatch 1000kms that year for Porsche, and in 1983 became one of the first privateer teams to run the Porsche 956 Group C car.

The Canon-backed team enjoyed great success with the 956 and its successor, the 962 during the 1980s, famously winning the Brands Hatch 1000kms with Jan Lammers and Jonathan Palmer in 1984.

Now called Richard Lloyd Racing, the team also starred at Le Mans in 1985, finishing second with Lloyd himself driving alongside Palmer and James Weaver. A year later, RLR, now backed by Liqui Moly, claimed their second world championship race win, again at Brands Hatch, with Mauro Baldi and Bob Wollek.
Lloyd's team continued in the World Sportscar Championship until 1990, claiming another victory at the Norisring in 1987, only to have to pull out because of a sponsorship shortfall before the 1991 season.

After dropping out of sportscars, the team returned to lower key projects, with Lloyd winning the British Porsche 924 Championship in 1993, but soon returned to prominence. They ran the factory Audi Sport UK team in the British Touring Car Championship and took the title with Frank Biela and the A4 Quattro in 1996.

When Audi pulled out of the BTCC at the end of 1998, the team turned their attention to sportscars once again, developing and running the Audi R8 Coupe for Le Mans before switching to Volkswagen Audi Group sister brand Bentley for 2001. Lloyd also continued his assocation with Audi, building and developing the Audi S4s which were hugely successful in North American tin-top racing.

After a superb third place on the marque's Le Mans comeback in 2001, Lloyd's team, now named Apex Motorsport, finally won the great race in 2003.

Lloyd continued to appear occasionally as a driver in historic events, but wound down his team prior to it being revived in 2006 to develop and run the factory-blessed Jaguar XKR in the FIA GT3 Championship.

da gibt es wenig zu zu schreiben.
Peter