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BTCC battle heads to Brands Hatch

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The battle for early supremacy in the British Touring Car Championship is set to continue this weekend as the series heads to Brands Hatch for Rounds 4, 5 & 6 of the 2025 campaign.

Hot on the heels of an action-packed opener at Donington Park, the BTCC speeds into the Kent venue with four-time champion Ash Sutton looking to build on what was an impressive start to his season.

Scoring two wins and a third place, the Alliance Racing driver – who is sporting a special centenary NAPA Racing UK livery this weekend – left curtain-raiser in the box seat with a seven-point advantage at the top of the standings.

EXCELR8 Motorsport emerged as the closest contenders to Sutton at Donington Park and a trio of second-place finishes for Tom Ingram and a reverse grid win for Tom Chilton underlined their credentials as contenders.

Meanwhile, Sutton’s team-mates, Dan Cammish and Dan Rowbottom, also stood on the podium last time out and they’ll be eager to make in-roads to the top-three in their Ford Focus ST machines.

While Ford and Hyundai flourished, BMW made the best of a challenging opening weekend as they continued to find a solution to their weight distribution issues.

Reigning champion Jake Hill tallied two fourth-place finishes to begin his title defence and he’ll be hoping that further refinements of his rear-wheel-drive 330i M Sport will power him further up the order at his home track.

Behind Hill, fellow West Surrey Racing stablemate Aiden Moffat, leading Independent runners Chris Smiley and Mikey Doble, as well as Adam Morgan will be looking to make their mark around the 1.208-mile Indy circuit.

Beyond the top ten, Josh Cook will make his 300th BTCC start in race one and after showing plenty of promise on One Motorsport’s return, he’ll be one to watch in the Honda Civic Type R.

Other drivers that will be aiming high include the Speedworks Motorsport Toyotas of three-time champion Gordon Shedden and Aron Taylor-Smith, impressive rookie Max Hall and Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd.

With the addition of Nick Halstead – who has joined Power Maxed Racing to drive a second Vauxhall Astra for the remainder of the season – this weekend’s grid sits at 25 cars.

Qualifying at Brands Hatch takes place at 15:10 local time/16:10 CEST on Saturday before Sunday sees three races staged; the first at 11:30, followed by race two at 14:05 and race three at 17:10.