TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA delivered its most competitive display of the 2025 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship campaign to date at Donington Park (30/31 August), yielding a champagne celebration, fastest lap and clutch of strong points-scoring finishes.
Saturday was a challenging day for the Speedworks Motorsport-run outfit, with Árón Taylor-Smith and Gordon Shedden both narrowly missing out on advancing to Part 2 of qualifying in the high-calibre, 22-strong field.
The latter was knocked out in the closing stages by 0.038 seconds, while Irishman Taylor-Smith looked to have progressed into Part 2, only to be stripped of his fastest time due to a track limits transgression. That left Shedden 12th on the grid for the opening bout of the weekend with Taylor-Smith directly behind in 14th, team returnee Josh Cook 18th and BTCC rookie Max Buxton 20th.
Opting to bolt on the harder of the two mandatory tyre compounds for the curtain-raising contest the next day, Shedden grittily hung onto the pack ahead and pulled off a committed pass on Charles Rainford down through the Craner Curves on the last lap to maintain his starting position of 12th, beaten only by medium tyre-runners.
In race two, the Scot manoeuvred decisively early on to move up to sixth. Then, with two-and-a-half laps to go, the heavens suddenly opened and the #52 exploited his many years of experience and renowned car control to keep the Corolla on track and rise to third – his second podium finish of 2025. He capped his weekend with another strong run to seventh – on the back of a close four-way fight over fourth – in race three.
Team-mate Taylor-Smith gained ground on the medium tyres in the opener, climbing into the top ten, agonisingly close to the group ahead by the chequered flag. He was similarly in the mix in race two, before navigating his way through the gravel trap at the Old Hairpin, which dropped him to 16th. The BTCC’s reigning Independents’ Trophy winner battled back to wind up seventh in race three, posting the fastest lap along the way.
That spirited recovery secured Taylor-Smith a prime starting spot for the partially reversed grid finale. Despite running the hard compound tyre, the 35-year-old remained up at the sharp end throughout courtesy of a defensive masterclass that earned him a season-high finish of fourth. The result made him leave Donington with his biggest points haul of 2025.
On his return to Speedworks, Cook spent much of the weekend settling back into the team and car, which had changed considerably since he had last driven it. After finishing 18th in race one, the 34-year-old Bath-born ace scythed his way through to sixth in race two. The #66 would end his day in 11th come the end of the day’s racing.
Buxton continued to gain invaluable mileage and experience behind the wheel of the British-built Toyota Corolla GR Sport. Having finished 21st in race one, the 20-year-old Lancashire native improved to 19th in race two, despite having to make a pit stop due to a hit from behind.
After rejoining, his quickest lap was impressively less than three tenths-of-a-second adrift of the best effort set by rostrum-finishing stablemate Shedden. Buxton completed his weekend’s work with 18thin the finale.
Gordon Shedden said: “Overall, it was a very positive weekend, and a real incentive for everybody in the team to keep on pushing because we can see there is light at the end of this tunnel.
“I was dead-chuffed to finish 12th and best-placed driver on the hard tyres in race one. It was really difficult to decide what strategy to choose at the start of the day due to the uncertain weather forecast, but by running the hards early on, it set us in good stead for races two and three on the medium compound.
“The second one was a bit wild! That will probably go down as one of the most random endings to a race in touring car history – it was just unbelievable. The track was bone dry until we got to the braking zone for McLeans, where we were met with a sudden wall of water! I’ve never seen anything like it before – for most of the race, it didn’t look like we were going to get any rain at all.
“Everything was going on at that moment – I was trying to find the wipers, the heated screen, adjust the brake balance – and cars were shooting off all over the place! It was total carnage, but thankfully we survived and I was absolutely delighted to finish on the podium. At Toyota’s home circuit, that was a brilliant result.
“We had the lowest amount of turbo boost we’ve had all season in race three and just got stuck behind drivers who had more than us to deploy, but we scored some more good points and got through without any dramas again. Now, we need to keep building upon this progress over the final two weekends.”
Árón Taylor-Smith said: “Donington Park GP has been one of my strongest tracks in recent times, and it was no surprise to me that we had our most successful weekend of the season. The culture and work ethic at Speedworks are second-to-none, and the effort that everybody in this team has put in is absolutely phenomenal – amongst the best I’ve ever seen in the BTCC paddock. It felt like we had taken a big leap forward with the car since Knockhill, and it’s so nice now to be in a position where we can genuinely challenge.
“The car felt mega in race one, with tenth place setting us up well to get even further into the mix later on. In race two, Ash Sutton pulled a rough move on me at the Old Hairpin, but he apologised afterwards and at the end of the day, these things happen in touring cars. Coming back through the pack and setting fastest lap was a real indicator that we’ve turned a corner with the Corolla.
“I felt very confident going into race three, and it was fantastic to end on a high with our season-best result, especially given we achieved it on the hard tyre. Now the key is to keep this momentum going!”
Josh Cook said: “It was a difficult weekend, but I was pleased to be back on the grid. The Corolla I drove last year was kind of moulded around me in terms of seating position, so there were some modifications required to get me comfortable in this one. It’s a very different car due to the regulation change over the winter and the removal of the hybrid system – it’s much lighter now. That has changed the weight distribution, which in-turn moves the centre of gravity.
“We consequently had to make some adjustments to get it somewhere near where I needed it to be, and we also all had to get used to working with each other again as a team, which is natural given the last-minute nature of how everything came together ahead of the weekend.
“Saturday didn’t go to plan due to a boost issue in qualifying that then frustratingly reoccurred on race day, despite the team’s best efforts to rectify it. We also struggled with the handling in race one; we couldn’t quite put our finger on what was wrong, but we found something for race two, which resulted in a good step in the right direction and a much more positive result. Big thanks to my car crew for working flat-out all weekend.”
Max Buxton said: “We definitely took a step forward compared to the previous two events. The gap to my team-mates in terms of pace was much reduced, which was great to see and shows we’re moving in the right direction. We got plenty of laps under our belt on Saturday, and I went into Sunday excited to find out what we could achieve.
“The energy around the track was awesome all weekend, and the races were certainly pretty busy and eventful in such challenging and changeable conditions! That made it very intense but lots of fun at the same time, and we continued to make progress throughout. I came away from Donington having learnt a huge amount again, and now I turn my attentions to trying to end the season strongly at Silverstone and Brands Hatch GP.”
