Dan Lloyd and Sam Osborne took their first-ever victories in the BTCC today at Silverstone, while Tom Ingram extended his championship lead by a single point.
The penultimate race meeting of 2025 brought the KwikFit British Touring Car Championship to the home of British racing, Silverstone, in the heart of the Northamptonshire countryside. With the ‘business end’ of the season firmly upon the championship, points were more valuable than ever to those fighting up and down the grid.
Tom Ingram led Ash Sutton by 32 points into the Silverstone weekend, while the Restart Racing duo of Chris Smiley and Daniel Lloyd had their sights on winning the Independent Teams’ championship come Sunday evening. The Independent Drivers’ championship however remained a close-fought battle between Dan Lloyd and Mikey Doble, with the latter leading by only two points before the weekend.
Big news sprung on Wednesday when TOCA announced plans for a junior championship to accompany BTCC weekends starting in 2027. Power Maxed Racing are tipped to design, develop and build the bespoke series cars.
BMW’s Daryl DeLeon took his maiden pole position in a rain-affected qualifying, while both title contenders failed to reach the Quick Six. Gordon Shedden accompanied DeLeon on the front row, with Jake Hill, Daniel Lloyd, Josh Cook and Senna Proctor completed the Quick Six.
DeLeon became the seventh different pole winner of the year. In Parc Fermé he said “it’s just a credit to how hard West Surrey Racing have been working towards making these BMWs strong again.
“I’ll probably get a nosebleed,” he joked, when asked about how he felt ahead of starting from the front row, “All I can do is my best and we’ll see where we end up.”
Sunday morning revealed the surprising news that 2001 and 2010 champion Jason Plato will return to the pit wall next year, with hopes to bring an additional manufacturer into the sport.
Race One
A clean getaway saw Shedden pass DeLeon but Independent driver Dan Lloyd stole the show as he progressed from fourth to the lead over the first two laps.
Hill followed Lloyd through, challenging but not surpassing the Restart Racing Hyundai in the early laps. Meanwhile, the title contenders of Sutton and Ingram slowly progressed up the order. Ingram broke into the top seven by the half-distance on lap 11 with Sutton in-tow.
Chilton returned to the pits with a rear-left puncture on lap 17, while Nic Hamilton’s Un-Limited Cupra caught fire, triggering a safety car as the blaze intensified.
The race ended under safety car, allowing Lloyd to claim his first ever BTCC victory ahead of Jake Hill thanks to his incredible opening laps and consistent pace to fend off the reigning champion.
Race two
Hill passed Lloyd through Copse at the start, but it was Ingram took advantage of the soft tyres to scythe through to the lead by lap five. Sutton reached as high as third place in the early phase.
The midfield battle heated up as Tom Chilton tagged Charles Rainford into Luffield on lap eight, the Team VERTU Hyundai ending up in the gravel with front-left corner damage. The safety car was brought out to recover the stricken Hyundai.
The race length was extended from 22 laps to 25 due to the safety car.
Following the safety car restart, Sutton moved into P2 to chase Ingram for the lead. Adam Morgan’s bonnet broke free, adding to the Hyundai scrap pile building over race two.
Daniel Rowbottom caught a puncture on lap 23, ending his top-five run prematurely.
Tom Ingram took his sixth victory of the year, ahead of Ash Sutton, once again extending his championship advantage. Jake Hill rounded off the podium while Dan Lloyd claimed another Independent victory for Restart Racing.
Race three
The reverse grid was drawn, and the top 12 were subsequently reversed, putting NAPA Racing’s Sam Osborne and Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble on the front row.
Osborne and Doble launched cleanly – but chaos ensued behind as DeLeon, Halstead and both Restart Racing Hyundais were involved in incidents on the opening lap.
Sutton, Hill and Ingram fought their way up the field, finishing third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Osborne held off a sustained challenge from Cook, but he eventually earned his first-ever win in the BTCC. Mikey Doble survived the midfield chaos to claim P10 and the Independent win for Power Maxed Racing.
Ingram taking victory in race two helped boost his championship confidence, and despite finishing behind Sutton in race three, Tingram managed to extend his championship lead by one point, giving him a 33-point buffer to the Ford driver.
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