TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA came away buoyed by its performance in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton last weekend (7-8 June), after battling up at the sharp end come rain and shine around the fastest circuit in the country.
Mastering the most challenging conditions of the season so far, BTCC rookie James Dorlin turned heads as he advanced through both Part 1 and Part 2 to book a berth in the ‘Quick Six’ shootout for the first time in the UK’s premier motorsport series. He proceeded to secure a fine fifth on the grid behind the wheel of his British-built, Speedworks Motorsport-prepared Toyota Corolla GR Sport – with Gordon Shedden in close company in ninth.
Under sunny skies the next day – and in front of the live ITV4 television cameras and a huge trackside crowd – Dorlin continued to hold his own in race one. Confidently taking the fight to his more experienced rivals, the 26-year-old Yorkshireman finished less than three seconds adrift of the podium in seventh as he hassled defending champion Jake Hill right to the chequered flag.
Dorlin replicated that result following a similarly feisty showing in race two, earning him pole position for the partially reversed-grid finale. Despite having to give best to Hill’s fast-starting rear wheel-drive BMW at lights-out, the series rookie was once again running solidly inside the leading pack when a high-pressure fuel pump failure sidelined him on only lap four.
While understandably disappointing, that sad ending did not take the shine off an otherwise excellent weekend, and team-mate Árón Taylor-Smith was another of the Toyota quartet to shine. After being relegated to the back row of the grid due to his car failing post-qualifying ride-height checks – the legacy of splitter damage caused by a snapped tension cable – the 35-year-old Irishman scythed through to 12th in the curtain-raising contest.
He continued to climb the order in race two and was on-course to finish seventh – just ahead of Dorlin – until he picked up a last lap puncture, but undeterred, from 17th on the grid for race three, Taylor-Smith produced another crowd-pleasing charge to wind up a stellar sixth.
The reigning Independents’ Trophy winner was joined in the top ten in the final contest by Shedden, as the series returnee grittily salvaged a clutch of points after encountering misfortune in races one and two. In the first of them, the three-time BTCC title-holder initially rose to seventh before being spun, pitching his Corolla off the circuit; in the second, he was seen off-track, this time in avoidance of somebody else’s accident at Church, the quickest corner in the country...
Fellow Scot Pearson, meanwhile, struggled in qualifying, leaving him a frustrated 22nd on the grid for the opener, from where he worked his way up to 16th – just one spot shy of a points-paying finish – prior to improving further to 14th in race two. The 23-year-old Fife native had hauled himself onto the fringes of the top ten in the finale when contact sent his bonnet skywards, prompting an early bath.
Gordon Shedden, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said: “Ultimately, Thruxton was another disappointing weekend, as not for the first time this season, we were denied a shot at better results through no fault of our own. The weather was pretty horrendous in qualifying, but ninth was a solid outcome – and we actually had the potential to be a little bit further forward still, I would say.
“I got a good start in race one to make up a couple of places and we were running well, until Senna Proctor got all excited and took me out at Goodwood. It was lucky we didn’t sustain more damage than we did, but irrespective of that, it destroyed our weekend yet again, which was massively frustrating.
“Then in race two, I had to go off to avoid another car spinning right in front of me, and the BTCC is so competitive these days that it’s a tough ask to come through the field from the back, but we stayed out of trouble in a busy race three and that at least earned us a top ten finish and a handful of points.”
Árón Taylor-Smith, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said: “At last, everything is starting to click! The failure in qualifying was tough to take after showing promise in free practice, but the three races were great. We picked our way through the pack to make up 11 places in the first one, in race two we were on for a really strong result until we got the puncture on the final lap and then in race three we achieved our best result of the season so far. We never gave up and kept on fighting despite the setbacks along the way.
“In the same vein, everyone at Speedworks has been working tirelessly to improve the car, and we made significant changes to the set-up of my Corolla for the weekend that yielded a huge step in the right direction. Thruxton was the first time all year that it felt like it was properly my car, enabling me to disengage my brain and simply focus on maximising performance, which is a real breakthrough.
“I’ve had similar ‘eureka’ moments at other teams in the past, and good things have always followed. Thruxton was the most successful and positive weekend we’ve had all year, and I’m really proud of everybody involved. I feel like the tide has turned now and the car is in the window where I need it, meaning we can truly kick on from here. This is just the beginning...”
Ronan Pearson, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said: “We honestly seem to have no luck whatsoever! Saturday was a very difficult day; we struggled with the set-up – I didn’t have the same good feeling in the car that I had at Snetterton, which made things difficult – and then an ill-timed red flag in Q1 when I was on a quicker lap didn’t help either, as we would have been on the cusp of making it through to Q2 at the very least.
“We gradually found our feet on Sunday; we made up a few places in race one, and while race two was a bit of a slog, the balance of the Corolla was mega towards the end and it felt better still in race three, which was reflected in our pace. I was able to pull off some fantastic overtakes to get into the top ten, the car was in a really good window and I was confident of continuing to move forward until the contact happened, which was totally needless and frankly disappointing at this level.
“So overall, it was another weekend of ‘what could have been’, but looking at the bigger picture, it seemed more positive for the team as a whole, which is obviously encouraging. Thank you as ever to my car crew for all of their efforts; they put in so much work and really deserve to be rewarded for that at some point, but nothing goes unnoticed and I truly appreciate everything they do.”
James Dorlin, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said: “Finally, a bit of luck went our way – although the changeable weather in free practice and having to take the engine out after FP2 because of a crack in the exhaust manifold obviously didn’t make for the most ideal start to my ‘Thruxton in a touring car’ adventure!
“We didn’t even know if we’d be out in time for qualifying, but the Speedworks guys did a mega job under huge pressure to get my Corolla ready with only five minutes to spare and I was delighted that I could repay them. The conditions were horrible – even on the straights, the car was aquaplaning everywhere – but what the rain also did was level the playing field a bit and I was over-the-moon to end up fifth.
“Having not got much dry running during practice to know what we were doing in terms of set-up, it was a bit of a guessing game in race one and we struggled with understeer and turn-in at the front, but we developed the car throughout the day to the point where it was at its best in race three, and I genuinely think a top four finish was on the cards until we were forced to retire.
“I was gutted not to be able to capitalise upon my first BTCC pole, but it was still a fantastic weekend overall – the best so far. That’s credit to everybody’s hard work and shows we’re on the right track with what we’re doing. I think people thought we might drop back from where we were in qualifying, but we didn’t – we stayed up there and showed our true potential. The results in the first few events didn’t reflect what we’re capable of, but this is where we should be and where we deserve to be. Now let’s keep the momentum going!”
