Zeus Cloud Racing With WSR

Duckhams Racing with Bartercard

Restart Racing

Restart Racing are not new to touring car racing. They won a championship as recent as 2022 with current driver Chris Smiley… the new BTCC outfit bring a two-car team to the 2024 grid. 

Driving alongside already-mentioned Smiley, a BTCC winner returning to the series, is a young driver in Scott Sumpton. Sumpton, 19, already has two years of touring car racing under his belt but this will be the first in the Cupra Leon. This is the same situation for Smiley who has had his previous win in the BTCC in a Honda Civic. Exciting times for one of the BTCC's newest teams entering into its first season of BTCC action. 

Team BMW

West Surrey Racing is a legendary race team with a history dating back to 1981. Team Principal Dick Bennetts was instrumental in the careers of a number of motorsport superstars, including Ayrton Senna. 

WSR made the move into the BTCC in 1996 to run the factory Ford outfit, with Will Hoy taking a first win for the squad in 1998. After fielding ‘works’ Honda Accords between 1999-2000 and spearheading a factory MG effort from 2001-2003, in 2004, the team entered the championship independently, winning the Independents’ title at the first time of asking. A switch to BMW machinery in 2007 proved very successful, as Colin Turkington went on to lift the overall Drivers’ laurels in the final race of 2009. 

With the addition of eBay Motors support in 2012, drivers Rob Collard, Tom Onslow-Cole and Nick Foster piloted WSR to second in the standings. For 2013, the team built no fewer than three BMW 125i M Sport NGTC cars, with Collard and Foster joined by the returning Turkington. The car quickly showed its potential, and the Northern Irishman found himself challenging for the overall Drivers’ championship until the final event of the year. 

More titles followed before BMW officially aligned with West Surrey Racing for 2017 to field a trio of 125i M Sports. Turkington re-signed for the team, as Collard agreed a new deal with the Surrey squad and Andrew Jordan joined the stable under the BMW Pirtek Racing banner. 

The Northern Irishman won the title in an ultra-competitive 2018 campaign. His only triumph of the season came at Oulton Park, but with the wins shared between a record 17 different drivers, consistency proved to be king and Turkington came out on top to seal his third Drivers’ trophy – all achieved in West Surrey Racing-run BMW machinery. 

In 2019, WSR and BMW entered a trio of brand new 330i M Sports for Turkington, Jordan and Tom Oliphant. Turkington and Jordan battled for glory throughout the season, taking five and six wins respectively, with Turkington ultimately emerging on top to secure a record-equalling fourth title. 

Multiple victories, along with further Manufacturers’ and Teams’ honours have been notched over the seasons since and in 2024 Team BMW has retained its driver pairing of Colin Turkington and Adam Morgan. 

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK

Formed in 2005, Speedworks Motorsport entered the BTCC in 2011, becoming one of the first teams to field an NGTC-spec car with a Toyota Avensis for Tony Hughes. The Cheshire-based operation branched out in 2012 by adding a second car for championship debutant Adam Morgan. 

That helped the squad to tenth in the final Teams’ standings that year and sixth in the Independents’ title chase. Following Hughes’ retirement and Morgan’s departure, Dave Newsham and Ollie Jackson took over driving duties in 2013, with the former proving to be a regular points-scorer and annexing a top ten championship position as Speedworks improved to seventh in the Teams’ table and fifth-best Independent. For 2014, the outfit slimmed down to a single-car entry for promising three-time Ginetta champion Tom Ingram, whilst offering support to the Handy Motorsport squad. 

Speedworks retained Ingram for 2015 and – coupled with engineering upgrades to the Toyota over the off-season – its young driver claimed two podiums on his way to 13th in the overall standings. 

Having finally reached the BTCC rostrum, the partnership continued into 2016 as the goalposts shifted once again with Speedworks and Ingram targeting their first outright win – which duly came from pole position in the curtain-raising round at Brands Hatch.  

Ingram went close to the title in 2018, taking the battle right down to the wire with wins at Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Silverstone. He narrowly missed out on the coveted Drivers’ crown by just 12 points in a straight fight with multiple champion Colin Turkington, but did once again seal the Independents’ laurels for both himself and his team. 

Speedworks acquired Toyota factory backing for 2019, becoming Team Toyota GB with Ginsters and transitioning to a Manufacturer entry as Ingram scored four victories behind the wheel of the brand-new Toyota Corolla. 

Ingram remained with the team in 2020 as Speedworks rebranded to become Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with Ginsters, and enjoyed a number of podium finishes and wins, including an impressive double win at Thruxton. 

2021 marked a new chapter for the team as it expands to a two-car line-up of Rory Butcher and series returnee Sam Smelt. The team then retained the services of Butcher for 2022, with Ricky Collard joining Toyota GAZOO Racing UK in his first full campaign in the BTCC. Butcher raced an impressive campaign, continuing his dominance at Silverstone and ending the season with a double podium – securing fifth place in the overall Drivers’ standings.  

Butcher and Collard were joined by George Gamble in 2023, but it proved to be a challenging campaign. 

Now for 2024… it’s all change at TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK as former World Champion Rob Huff and Jack Sears Trophy Champion Andrew Watson join the squad. 

Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing

Power Maxed Racing first joined Britain’s premier motorsport series in 2014, with former sportscar racer Chris Stockton taking to the wheel of a Chevrolet Cruze before the squad expanded to a two-car operation for Renault UK Clio Cup runner-up Josh Cook and BTCC race-winner Dave Newsham the following year. The team achieved a podium finish at Rockingham and consistently challenged inside the top ten. 

Ahead of 2017, PMR announced that Vauxhall would be returning to the fray as a Manufacturer, with its new Astra replacing the team’s Chevrolet. Tom Chilton joined the factory effort and scooped silverware on the opening weekend, whilst team-mate Senna Proctor was crowned champion in the ultra-competitive Jack Sears Trophy at the end of an impressive rookie season. 

Proctor took a first BTCC race win at Brands Hatch in 2018, winding up a creditable 12th in the overall classification, as new team-mate Josh Cook picked up a brace of victories and four further podium finishes on his way to sixth in the standings. Power Maxed TAG Racing concluded the campaign a best-yet third in the Teams’ table – tied on points with second-placed Halfords Yuasa Racing. 

In 2019, Jason Plato returned to Vauxhall machinery and was joined by Rob Collard in an all-new driver line-up for Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing. The pair powered their way to fifth in the Teams’ Championship, with Plato winning the final race of the season. 

Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing made its BTCC return with stalwart Jason Plato partnered by series returnee Dan Lloyd in 2021, with Plato celebrating his 600th BTCC race start with the squad. 

In 2023, CarStore Power Maxed Racing produced a new line-up, including race-winner Aron Taylor-Smith and rookies Mikey Doble and Andrew Watson. It was a great year for the team as Taylor-Smith made a welcome return to the podium, whilst Doble and Watson duelled it out for the Jack Sears Trophy. 

Taylor-Smith and Doble remain with the team for 2024. 

LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ

Whilst LKQ Euro Car Parts with Synetiq were a main sponsor with Josh Cook, Aiden Moffat and Jade Edwards last season, 2024 marks its first foray as a team – run by the successful Speedworks Motorsport squad. 

Speedworks will run four Toyota Corollas in the country’s premier motor racing series this year – two Toyota Gazoo Racing UK entries, and two under the new LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ satellite banner with Cook and Moffat behind the wheel. 

To fans of the BTCC, Cook needs little introduction. A familiar face in the paddock since 2015, the West Country ace has tallied no fewer than 18 victories – making him the 19th ‘winningest’ driver in the championship’s 66-year history – 42 podium finishes, three pole positions and 24 fastest laps. It is an impressive set of statistics by any standards.  

Like Speedworks, Cook has twice lifted the Independents’ laurels in the fiercely-contested series – in 2022 and 2023 – while finishing inside the top six in the overall standings in five of the past six campaigns, placing a career-high third in 2021. The 32-year-old is hoping the move to LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ will prove to be the final piece of the puzzle to kick-start his quest to clinch the biggest prize of all – the coveted Drivers’ crown. 

Moffat made history when he joined the BTCC grid on home soil at Knockhill back in 2013. Aged just 16 years, 10 months and 28 days, he became the youngest driver ever to contest the UK’s premier motor racing series – and in evidence of his raw talent, he was a points-scorer in only his fourth start. 

Since then, the Dalkeith native has gone on to notch up four race wins, ten further podiums, a pole position and two fastest laps. A career-high eighth overall in 2021, Moffat has also been a consistent top six finisher in the Independents’ title battle for the past three seasons. 

NAPA Racing UK

NAPA Racing UK has assembled one of the most talented squads on the grid, having originally evolved from the racing outfit Motorbase Performance. 

Motorbase competed in the BTCC from 2006 – winning many races and Independents’ honours – before Pete Osborne purchased the team in 2021. 

A new look for 2021 saw the team racing under the Racing with Wera & Photon Group banner, with Andy Neate and Sam Osborne heading its BTCC attack. 

Renamed as NAPA Racing for 2022, the team signed champion Ash Sutton and former runner-up Dan Cammish among its drivers. 

A fresh multi-year deal alongside NAPA UK from 2022 brought with it an exciting new dawn for the outfit, that ultimately saw the squad claim the coveted BTCC Teams’ Championship 57 points clear of its nearest rivals. 

2022 was just a taste of things to come, however, as last year proved to be a record-breaking campaign for NAPA Racing UK – run by the now-named Alliance Racing. 

Sutton and Cammish were joined by Osborne and Dan Rowbottom in a full NAPA Racing UK four-car outfit. 

Sutton won the Drivers’ championship in commanding fashion, whilst the squad also scooped both the Manufacturers’/Constructors’ and Teams’ titles in a memorable hat-trick. 

The team has retained its quartet of drivers for 2024. 

Team BRISTOL STREET MOTORS

EXCELR8 Motorsport stepped up to the BTCC in 2019 after securing a deal to take over the running of two MG6 GTs from AMDTuning, together with the TOCA BTCC Licences (TBLs) required to enter them. 

The agreement marked a new venture for EXCELR8, an established heavy-hitter in the MINI CHALLENGE. In addition to constructing over 75 of the high-powered CHALLENGE JCW race cars for both the UK and overseas markets, the Norfolk-based outfit also fields multiple drivers across the three classes of the British series. 

The team ran Sam Osborne and Rob Smith throughout its maiden campaign of BTCC competition, before moving to Hyundai machinery and the all-new i30N for 2020, building the car from the ground up while recruiting a fresh driver line-up in the shape of race-winners Senna Proctor and Chris Smiley. 

Having enjoyed its most successful campaign to date in 2020, which included a podium for the brand-new machinery during the season opener at Brands Hatch, EXCELR8 Motorsport increased to four cars the following year, with Rick Parfitt Jnr, Jack Butel and Smiley being joined by multiple race-winner Tom Ingram. The efforts from the team and Ingram saw the squad clinch its maiden victory and end the campaign fifth in the standings. 

2022 confirmed EXCELR8’s place as one of the BTCC’s leading lights, with Tom Ingram and Jack Butel joined by BTCC race winners Tom Chilton and Dan Lloyd. Entering the Manufacturers’/Constructors’ battle for the first time, the squad took third overall with its quartet of Hyundai i30Ns, as well as third in the Teams’ Championship, while Ingram would claim a maiden overall Drivers’ title with the squad. 

Aiming to build on this successful sweep, Tom Ingram and Tom Chilton were joined by Nick Halstead and Ronan Pearson in 2023, as the rookies aim to utilise their team-mates’ experience in Britain’s premier motorsport series. Ingram put up a valiant title defence and would eventually finish as runner-up. 

The squad has retained its quartet of drivers for 2024. 

Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport

Running under the ROKiT MB Motorsport banner, the Mark Blundell-led outfit joined forces with multiple champions West Surrey Racing for the 2022 BTCC campaign. 

MB initially entered the UK’s premier motorsport series alongside partners AmD in 2020, with a fresh new driver line-up in the form of Jake Hill and Sam Osborne, which saw the pair garner numerous points finishes and several podiums throughout the campaign. 

In 2021, Hill – joined by race winner Ollie Jackson – competed in the team’s Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus ST. Hill took two wins and competed for the overall title for the first time in his career, eventually ending up fifth in the final Drivers’ standings. 

Building on 2021’s momentum, Hill led a one-car assault for 2022 in a WSR-built and run BMW 330e M Sport. The Kent racer had a brilliant campaign, doubling his win total, as well as securing 13 more podiums and 381 more points than his 2021 season. This meant Hill was in the fight for the crown right until the dramatic finale at Brands Hatch. 

In 2023, the outfit announced a striking new title partnership with premier automotive tools specialists, Laser Tools, to form Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport. Both parties united in their bid to embark on a fully-fledged title assault in the upcoming campaign, with Jake Hill just narrowly missing out. 

The combination will likely be one of the favourites once again for the 2024 campaign.