After a difficult start to the 2017 season, Dan Lloyd and Triple Eight have announced a split ahead of this weekend’s BTCC meeting at Croft.

Lloyd joined the MG team at the start of the year to partner Aron Taylor-Smith having impressed during a part campaign in a Eurotech Racing Honda Civic last season.

So far however, Lloyd has endured a season to forget, with a heavy accident during the Thruxton meeting and just two points finishes leaving him down in 24th place in the championship.

The 25-year-old has also failed to break into the top ten in the first twelve races of the year, and will now depart, potentially leaving MG with just a single car for the fifth meeting of the year at Croft in North Yorkshire this weekend.

“Triple Eight Racing and Daniel Lloyd can today confirm they will no longer be competing together in the British Touring Car Championship,” a short team statement read.

“After a frustrating start to the 2017 both parties are now pursuing other opportunities for the remainder of the season.

“Triple Eight would like to thank Daniel for all his hard work and commitment this year and wish him nothing but success for his future career.”

The team have said that Lloyd’s replacement will be announced shortly.

“This year was a big investment year for me and my backers,” said Lloyd. “I was so excited to have joined the MG line-up for 2017. Unfortunately the results have led to us already losing a number of sponsors for this season, and this has forced us to make the very difficult decision to walk away from the BTCC for the time-being.

“As a racing driver, all I want to do is compete, however the facts of modern motorsport are that it takes a lot of funding to race,” he added

“Even with the fantastic backing that is in place from MG, I still need to bring a lot of sponsors to the table, and with the results as they stand, continuing with the RCIB squad would put any future hopes of racing at risk.

“I’d like to extend my personal thanks to all of MG team for all of their support this year and I wish them all the very best for the rest of the season.”