BTCC ready to kick off second half of the season at Croft
The British Touring Car Championship returns to action this weekend with Croft Circuit providing the setting for the second half of the 2025 season to commence.
Following the series’ mid-season break, the BTCC heads to North Yorkshire for Rounds 16, 17 & 18 of a campaign that has already seen ten different drivers score victory and a title battle that is delicately poised.
Despite a wheel not turning in recent weeks, the championship has been busy. Notably, One Motorsport have announced that they will miss the next two rounds at Croft and Knockhill at the very least.
Their absence has had a knock-on effect with Stephen Jelley making the move to Un-Limited Motorsport for the remainder of the season, filling the seat that was vacated by Max Hall. Josh Cook meanwhile will sit on the sidelines for the time being.
Over at Speedworks Motorsport, rising star Max Buxton is set to see out the campaign before embarking on a full season in 2026. Buxton will pilot the Toyota Corolla that had been driven by Ronan Pearson earlier in the year.
When it comes to the battle for supremacy at the top of the standings, just ten points is the difference between four-time champion Ash Sutton and EXCELR8 Motorsport’s 2022 title winner Tom Ingram.
Sutton and Ingram emerged as the class of the field during the first half of the season and the duo are set to renew their duel for top spot at Croft. The question is whether we are on course for a two-horse race or can anyone close the gap to the pair.
Alliance Racing’s Dan Cammish and Dan Rowbottom have both been race winners but they are more than 60 points adrift of Ingram as it stands. They’ll both be well worth watching as they bid to make in-roads into the top two.
Elsewhere, reigning champion Jake Hill endured a rollercoaster first half of the season however remains a threat in his BMW while the Hyundai duo of Adam Morgan and Tom Chilton have tallied a number of podiums between themselves.
Other drivers that will be well worth keeping an eye on include three-time champion Gordon Shedden, Independent front-runners Chris Smiley, Daniel Lloyd and Mikey Doble, Charles Rainford and Aiden Moffat.
Qualifying at Croft takes place at 15:30 local time/16:30 CEST on Saturday before Sunday sees three races staged; the first at 12:10, followed by race two at 14:30 and race three at 17:10.
