Power Maxed Racing scored a point at Knockhill Circuit – just eight days after a devastating fire burned their assets to the ground. This MotorPost exclusive with team boss, Adam Weaver, details this incredible season of willpower and unity.
Power Maxed Racing (PMR) reached new heights in 2025 when Mikey Doble took his sensational maiden victory, before a devastating fire destroyed the team’s headquarters in the summer, leading to the loss of their entire inventory and assets.
The horrific fire left PMR with nothing left, but they still took on the challenge to arrive at Knockhill circuit just a week later and score a point on borrowed equipment.
To understand how a team recovers from a total loss in just a week, it is important to understand the man who spent years meticulously building it. At the helm, of both a fan-favourite underdog and a force to be reckoned with, is Adam Weaver.
“I grew up at the side of a kart track racing gearbox karts, then I started racing Autograss when I was 14 or 15,” Weaver said, indicating his lifelong devotion to motor racing, “I then raced in the VW Cup, Mini Challenge, and Suzuki Swift Rallycross
Championship.”
Photo: Power Maxed Racing
In 2005, he became an automotive business entrepreneur, when he launched his pour-in head gasket fix, Steel Seal: “Steel Seal is the main product that got us into motorsport,” he explained, “We were looking for the ‘car guys’ in each peer group so we could advertise that something like Steal Seal actually existed and works.
“We started a lot of motorsport advertising based around the Steel Seal product and that took us all the way up to BTCC, sponsoring the likes of Tom Onslow-Cole and Rob Austin.”
He also launched Power Maxed, a car care brand featuring a line of cleaning, additive and lubricating products. Power Maxed began life in the BTCC as a title sponsor for Chris Stockton’s TEAM BTC Chevrolet in 2014.
“I don’t know how to politely describe it, but the results and their performance were horrific,” he recalled, “At the end of the year they told me a number they needed for sponsorship, and there was just no way I was prepared to pay that for sponsoring a team.
“I said I wouldn’t pay that to sponsor it, but I’ll give you that to buy the team…” The following year, TEAM BTC transformed into Power Maxed Racing under Weaver’s leadership.
That year, rookie Josh Cook won the prestigious Jack Sears Trophy, opening PMR’s story with immediate success. Since then, BTCC icons such as Senna Proctor, Tom Chilton, Jason Plato, Rob Huff and Rob Collard have all raced behind the wheel of PMR machinery.
2025 was “a pretty sadistic rollercoaster,” Weaver said.
When I asked Doble ahead of the season finale at Brands Hatch, he described 2025 as “a season of two distinct halves,” followed up by seasoned team-mate Nick Halstead’s brilliantly blunt response:
“Started great, ended shit.”
Both alluded to the early-season momentum culminating in a crucial victory, and fire that subsequently derailed their progress.
The team also faced drama before the season even began, Weaver said: “We started 2025 not knowing whether we were going to go racing at all,” after their title sponsor pulled out two years earlier than contracted, prompting a legal dispute. “[We] managed to secure help and support of Motor Parts Direct… but it was only enough money to get one car out.”
The Golden Half
Through pure observation, the first half of the season can only be described as ‘eye-catching,’ starting with pre-season testing.
Pre-season testing started at Croft Circuit, North Yorkshire, and by the end of day two, Mikey Doble was at the top of the leaderboard. When sanctioning is relaxed in testing, some people believe testing does not build an accurate picture of performance. However, Weaver was satisfied: “it’s good because it’s a benchmark against other people. We were running overweight, at the correct ride height, as per regulation, so those times we were confident we could recreate.
“Based on how hard the off-season had been, the boys and girls at Power Maxed Racing were – very fairly – considering they may not have a job in 2025 … So for us to be in the paddock and then go out and top the times at the pre-season test, it’s like winning a race.”
Doble also placed in the top 10 on Media Day around Donington Park: the site of the season opener.
Doble kicked off PMR’s season at Donington Park with speed in qualifying, and consistent, measured pace in the races to leave the first weekend with 20 points and ninth place in the championship.
“Weirdly, I’d say we were a little disappointed,” Weaver admitted, “We got quite beaten up in those races and ended up losing some places due to contact. I don’t think that race weekend really showed the pace we actually had.”
On 6th May, before round two, Nick Halstead announced his return to the BTCC with PMR. Looking back, Weaver said: “Nick was looking for somewhere that was fun to be, as well as being incredibly professional and driven to get results, even after he was adamant he was finished with the BTCC.”
Doble made his first ‘Quick Six’ qualifying appearance of the year at Brands Hatch Indy, placing the car sixth on the grid and finishing there in race one. However, a late retirement in race two placed him 22nd, hindering progress for the rest of the day.
Halstead’s first outing with the team yielded 23rd in qualifying, with steady progress over the day giving him 24th, 20th and 24th places in races one, two and three, respectively.
The season high undoubtedly arose in June at Snetterton Circuit – where Mikey Doble consolidated his maiden BTCC victory. It was a spectacular moment, provoking emotions only occasionally seen in elite motorsport. I witnessed it myself from The Bomb Hole corner, as the ancient Astra opened the gap to the championship-contending Ford Focus of Ash Sutton.
There was a sense of anticipation as the laps ticked by, replaced with building joy as Doble took the chequered flag, and with it, the win. The competitors rolled past on the cooldown lap, accompanied by cheering and applause for both the driver and the team.
Weaver said: “It was fantastic – it was a reverse-grid pole, but the amount of pressure we were put under by the chasing pack behind us early on, in particular the amount of pressure that Ash Sutton put Mikey under.
“Mikey coming under that kind of pressure from a four-time BTCC champion – and holding him off for a race win – was absolutely fantastic and very well deserved.
“He’s served his time, he’s paid his dues, and he couldn’t have been more deserving of that victory.”
Doble returned to the Quick Six at Thruxton Circuit, the fastest track on the BTCC calendar. He started on the second row, but engine troubles forced retirements from the first and second races. A great recovery put him 13th by the chequered flag in race three. Halstead, meanwhile, was unable to compete in qualifying after falling ill that weekend, and he did not appear on the grid come Sunday.
The Cheshire-based Oulton Park circuit produced a weekend of chaos in tricky conditions. Doble placed 11th in qualifying, while Halstead managed 22nd. Doble fell to 17th in race one, while Halstead made no progress. Non-finishes for both cars in race three capped off a tough weekend for the PMR squad.
Mid-way through the season, PMR was locked in a battle for the Independent’ Teams Championship. Among those rivals, One Motorsport appeared in headlines following the Oulton Park weekend. The health of team owner, Steve Dudman, had deteriorated and his team released a statement intending to withdraw their pair of Hondas from the upcoming Croft and Knockhill weekends.
“At that point, I thought they were done,” Weaver said, “I’m sure Steve has had some ill health – I certainly don’t think that’s a lie – but the long-and-short of it is it comes down to money to go racing.”
Unfortunately, Weaver’s instinct was right. One Motorsport did not return to the grid in 2025.
Croft circuit saw another stellar qualifying performance from Doble as he earned third on the grid for Sunday’s first race, reinforcing the pace shown in testing earlier in the year. It began surfacing in commentary, media coverage and fan opinions that Power Maxed Racing and Mikey Doble were becoming the ‘giant slayers’ and ‘underdog heroes’ of the grid.
“It’s nice to hear, and it’s nice that people refer to us that way…” Weaver said with hesitation, “it’s almost like people seem to forget the successes and performances we’ve had in the past.
“We’ve won plenty of races, and we’ve generally been there or thereabouts,”
“We’ve got full-time engineers … but maybe sometimes we don’t have the budget to test what we’re working on and prove it in reality. And sometimes we don’t have the drivers to back up the ability the team’s got.”
He alluded to previous PMR talents, such as Josh Cook and Senna Proctor, who “would have been challenging for outright titles in our Astra… if together we had raised the money to keep them in a seat for three, four or five years, I’ll be very amazed if we didn’t have a title already.”
Although the race results did not follow through for either driver, PMR ended the Croft weekend with an Independents’ win when Doble finished 10th in race three, putting him at the head of the Independent Drivers’ championship as the BTCC looked north to Knockhill. However…
The Fire
On the afternoon of Saturday 16th August, a fire swept across PMR’s headquarters in Worcestershire, destroying everything – buildings, departments, machines, vehicles and spare parts.
Where the air was once filled with the industrious hum of fabrication machines, there was eerie silence accompanied by the residual heat throughout the charred remains.
“Devastated just doesn’t cover it,” Weaver said, in an open letter from PMR that afternoon. Even when all his assets were reduced to ash, there was still hope: “Our factory may be gone, but our spirit is very much alive.” With raceday at Knockhill just eight days away, PMR was going to be there – one way or another.
“I made a call to Steve Dudman initially because of the Hondas.” Weaver explained, “Steve Dudman saw it as an opportunity to try and profit from the scenario, and gave me a ridiculously high price to rent one of his cars.
“I don’t know what the right word is, to explain just how expensive that price was. I did actually manage to be polite with him – which was surprising based on the circumstances – and just told him he was living in cloud cuckoo land.”
Weaver had another plan, however: “I remembered the Scott Sumpton car that Roddy Patterson told me he bought.” Roddy is the father of Dexter Patterson, a current BTCC driver for Un-Limited Motorsport.
“I rang Roddy, and Roddy was in absolute bits on the phone … and I’m like ‘Roddy! Roddy! I need to ask you a question!’ and he was like, ‘Yeah of course you can borrow the car!’”
The car was in Patterson’s workshop in Glasgow, and with no tools, Weaver had to send a group of engineers from PMR to work on the car up in Patterson’s workshop.
“Roddy and Dexter were absolutely amazing to be honest, they gave us a workshop, let us use a load of their tools, whilst we sent a van to TengTools, and put a couple of big tool chests in the back of his van, which went onwards to Knockhill.”
“And then we did the deal to borrow the other car out of Un-Limited [Motorsport].”
That was just for the cars. They had nothing else – no garage boarding, no BTCC-specialised tools, no machines, and no hospitality support truck, meaning they had to “beg and borrow from every motorsport paddock in the UK.”
“We borrowed from a local BSB team, OMG Racing lent us some stuff, WSR lent us tables, EXCELR8 lent us a load of chairs, another team lent us a pot-wash station, we had to borrow lots of stuff.”
“Thankfully our race truck was singed but not destroyed,” he said, which is something I noticed on the weekend of the Brands Hatch GP finale. The branding had blistered and peeled on the trailer. That was quite sobering.
“The scary thing is, that truck was probably parked about 40 meters away from the building. That level of melting from 40 meters away is pretty impressive,” he added.
By Thursday, photos of the PMR trucks in transit began circulating online, providing fans with further confirmation the team was Knockhill-bound. When the team unpacked on Thursday, the work did not stop.
In an interview for social media on Friday, Doble described the team as “defying all odds.”
Unsurprisingly, Weaver shared a similar opinion: “A lot of people in the same situation wouldn’t have even bothered trying, to be honest, because quite frankly it was a ridiculous thing to try and achieve. As I’ve said to lots of people, when people congratulate me, the only thing I did was be stupid enough to try.”
How does one man manage a team – with nothing left – and still galvanise enough to turn up the very next weekend?
“You don’t. Simple as that,” Weaver said.
“You’ve either done all of the work in the past, and got the right people around you, and got the right mentality into the organisation – or you haven’t.
“All I really did was say that ‘we’re gonna try and do this, guys, are you on board with that?’ and everybody was; it wasn’t really a question. It was so obvious that people wanted to try.
“And when something so shit has just happened, everybody needs something to focus on. If I’d have said, ‘that’s it, we’re out’, everyone would’ve gone home, they would’ve been distraught, they would’ve been upset, they would’ve have been fearful of their jobs. It gave us all something to focus on, to go racing.”
The team’s rise from the ashes at Knockhill was covered extensively, and the entire paddock was proudly anticipating the moment their cars hit the track.
“The really emotional moment for me was the amount of team personnel, staff and drivers that lined the pit wall and stood in the pit lane to watch the cars go out on circuit – and if that wasn’t enough, the fuckers started clapping!”
“It was really, really hard not to shed a tear at that point.”
From a competitive standpoint, that Knockhill weekend was difficult. Neither driver finished higher than 15th, as they and the engineers were forced to adapt to the Cupras with no previous testing. Although being on the grid that weekend was a great achievement – a win in itself – the next challenge was to be competitive with the borrowed machinery. As Weaver put it, “that is a much, much steeper mountain to climb.
“To know that the team and driver are capable of so much more, to be fighting really, really hard to finish 15th was soul-destroying.”
Following Knockhill were Donington Park GP, Silverstone and the finale at Brands Hatch GP. These rounds were hampered by the “fundamentally flawed” Cupras, as 2025 BTCC driver Stephen Jelley described at the Brands Hatch finale, including several reliability problems among a general lack of pace. Overall, despite their effort and expertise, PMR could not possibly extract the performance needed, especially with borrowed equipment and such little time.
Highlights after Knockhill included Doble’s 10th and 11th place finishes at Silverstone, as well as his persistence in pursuit of the Independent Drivers’ Championship for the second season running. Ultimately, he lost out to Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd, by just four points.
Weaver believed it is likely Doble could have clinched the title, if it were not for the “several extra zeroes” on the sum of money Dudman was asking for his One Motorsport Hondas.
The Next Chapter
As the rebuild process started, positive news began to drip from the Evesham squad. Major news broke in October when PMR announced they will use new Audi S3 saloons in 2026. With the Astras reduced to ash, and the Cupras outdated and ineffective, it was time for a new car.
“We just wanted to select what we thought was the best shape car for BTCC regulations.
“That came down to a split [decision] between Mercedes and the Audi. We felt the Audi was marginally better for a few reasons,” noting the aerodynamic and chassis advantages, in addition to the ‘prestigious yet accessible’ nature of the Audi, which may help in sponsor negotiations, all adding up to keep Power Maxed Racing a force to be reckoned with in a new chapter in the team’s history.
Weaver then summarised the emotions and takeaways following the fire to close off the year:
“Myself and all of the guys and girls at Power Maxed Racing have worked to breaking point and beyond.
“Without the outpouring of love and support from the entire community, it would’ve been a lot more difficult.
“All of those people who, when they reach out and give a little bit of support, via maybe a message or comment on Facebook – they may feel, at the time, silly for them to do that, that we won’t see it, we won’t appreciate it – but that’s not the case at all.
“Every single comment has been read by at least one person within the team and it has meant more than anybody could ever realise.”
Paired with unwavering support from fans and competitors, Power Maxed Racing not only survived the catastrophic fire, but they rose from the ashes and lived to flourish, continuing the team’s punchy history with a new chapter in 2026.
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