Buoyed by its best performance of the 2025 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship campaign to-date, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA is approaching the penultimate event of the season at Silverstone this weekend (20/21 September) looking to build upon its recent upturn in form.
 
Between them, Gordon Shedden, Árón Taylor-Smith, Josh Cook and Max Buxton bagged six top ten finishes last time out at Donington Park, where the former – three times a champion in the UK’s premier motor racing series – ascended the podium for the second time this year.
 
The Scot is aiming to carry that champagne-spraying form forward to the Northamptonshire circuit – where he has previously notched up three wins and four further trips to the rostrum – while six of stablemate Taylor-Smith’s 22 career podiums in the BTCC have been achieved at Silverstone.
 
The compact yet challenging 1.85-mile ‘National’ circuit was the scene of the reigning Independents’ Trophy winner’s maiden top three finish in the series, and 12 months ago, the Irishman qualified on pole position there, only to subsequently be stripped of the top spot on the starting grid due to a post-session ride-height issue.
 
All four Toyota drivers can equally take great encouragement from the Corolla’s prior performances at the track, tallying no fewer than five victories. All four will be bolstered by the full complement of TOCA Turbo Boost (TTB) in both qualifying and race one.
 
Following Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session at 15:30 – available to watch on ITV Sport’s YouTube channel – every moment of Sunday’s doorhandle-to-doorhandle action will be shown live on ITV4 and ITVX from 10:45. The full race day schedule will similarly be streamed live around the globe on the BTCC YouTube channel, with the exception of the UK and North America, where there are existing broadcast agreements in-place.
 
Gordon Shedden, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said: “We go to Silverstone off the back of our most competitive showing of the season so far at Donington Park. The devil is in the detail, as they say, and having refined the package even further since then, hopefully we can have another decent run.
 
“The ‘National’ layout might look relatively simple, but the short nature of the lap means you have to be absolutely on top of your game and inch-perfect in qualifying as the times tend to be exceedingly tight – that makes it one of the most important Saturdays of the season, and it’s essential to maximise every element. We need to make sure we start off on the front foot in that respect; we haven’t always managed that this year, but doing so makes the whole weekend so much easier.
 
“The racing is invariably close there, too, and while it’s fair to say we would welcome some changeable conditions or anything else that might throw an extra dimension into the mix, the Corolla has a good prior record at Silverstone come rain or shine. It would be nice to keep that form going and come away with another podium if we can...”
 
Árón Taylor-Smith, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said: “Silverstone has historically been a track that has favoured both the Toyota as well as myself, and I think the team is in a great place after our best weekend of the year at Donington Park. Racing at Silverstone is always a little bit special, and I feel it will really play to the strengths of the Corolla’s chassis – the long-radius corners with the focus on getting a good exit are a great match for the Toyota’s core attributes.
 
“The car is in the best window we’ve had it all season, and I genuinely think we can challenge. We narrowly missed out on a podium at Donington, and I feel like we have a more competitive package going into this weekend thanks to the three-week prep time in-between. It’s also nice that the team has had a bit of a chance to catch up on some much-needed sleep after everybody’s non-stop efforts of late.
 
“Now, I’m feeling excited to push on and try to close out the season on a high with some really strong results. Between the four of us, I think we can extract every little bit out of this car and put on a great show.”
 
Josh Cook, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said: “Since my last-minute return to the Corolla at Donington Park, I’ve had a full test day at Snetterton, which enabled us to iron out a lot of the issues we encountered that weekend and I feel we’re now collectively in a much better place. We made some good headway in getting the car closer to my liking, and I’m consequently a lot more comfortable in it.
 
“I had a relatively successful weekend at Silverstone in the Toyota last year, and while the new regulations for 2025 mean you can’t rely too much upon historical form or results, they do inevitably give you a bit of a boost. I’m also obviously nowhere near any kind of championship battle having missed a number of races this year, which gives us the opportunity to venture down some avenues and experiment with a few set-up options that we might not otherwise have done for fear of taking too much of a risk.
 
“Silverstone is very much a power circuit, and having plenty of TTB available in qualifying and race one can only be to our advantage. The margins are always so fine there that if you don’t get everything spot-on, you can find yourself in for a tough weekend, but I’m confident in my ability to deliver a lap when it counts and all-in-all, I’m going there in pretty upbeat mood.”
 
Max Buxton, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said: “I’m incredibly excited to get back into the thick of it at Silverstone! We had a really productive test last week, which was a big help in terms of the additional track time. The format of a race weekend is so quick-fire that you never really get the opportunity to analyse anything properly, but we completed a lot of laps in the test and got to try out some things on the car that we wouldn’t normally have chance to do. For a rookie like myself, the benefit of that kind of extended running really can’t be overstated.
 
“It’ll be my first time on-track at Silverstone, but I’ve been putting in the hours on the simulator, which has been super-useful, and I feel like we’re in a strong place going into the event. I can’t wait to get stuck in around what looks to be a short but highly technical layout, and I’m fully focussed on doing everything I can to make it my most successful BTCC outing yet.”