Mikey Doble will head into the final rounds of the 2026 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season in the box seat when it comes to the battle for the Independents Drivers’ crown after maintaining his lead in the standings at Silverstone.
The LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing driver tallied a sublime pole position at the Northamptonshire venue, and then followed it up with a podium finish. Those results helped towards ensuring he takes a 25-point lead into next month’s finale at Brands Hatch.
Arriving at the penultimate event of the campaign off the back of claiming a sublime second win of the year at Croft, the Audi A3 Saloon driver continued his rich vein of form by changing to a maiden Qualifying Race victory on Saturday.
Three years on from clinching a career-first pole position at Silverstone, the 27-year-old reigned supreme as he and teammate Aiden Moffat secured a front row lockout for Sunday’s opening encounter.
Doble started the 18-lap sprint from pole position after a superb lap in the earlier qualifying session. And after a brief battle with Daryl De Leon in the opening laps, the Surrey-based racer comfortably charged to glory.
Electing to run the soft tyre in race one, Doble lost the lead to Moffat as the lights went out and was forced to fight tooth and nail to remain at the front as a swarm of other cars threatened to send him tumbling backwards.
Showing his fighting spirit, the former Jack Sears Trophy winner quickly settled into a groove and fought back. Making a number of audacious moves, Doble was back up to second in no time at all and from there, he shadowed Moffat to record a famous one-two for the team.
That would be as good as it would get for Doble on race day though, as the combination of the medium tyre and little to no TOCA Turbo Boost meant that he was easy pickings for rival drivers in race two.
Then in a wet reverse grid finale, the front-wheel-drive ace was unable to utilise his remaining soft-compound tyre, keeping him in the midfield, preventing him from even breaking into the points-paying positions.
Mikey Doble: “It’s certainly been a weekend of two halves. We rolled the car out the truck and the thing was on rails on Saturday. I’d like to think of myself as a bit of a Silverstone specialist so it was nice to do what we did in Qualifying and the Race To Pole.
“I didn’t make the best of starts in race one but we managed to fight back and came oh-so close to getting the lead back off Aiden at the end. I have to offer up my congratulations to him because he drove brilliantly all weekend.
“Then with the slower tyre and no boost, we just fell away in race two. That was to be expected, but what wasn’t was becoming a human pinball as other drivers just decided to fire into the side of me in race three.
“I’d have liked to come away with more in those last two races but importantly we have the lead in the Independents and now we can head to Brands Hatch with a good shot of bringing the title home. It’s my home track and one that I love so let’s give it everything we’ve got.”
The 2026 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship campaign concludes in less than two weeks as Rounds 28, 29 & 30 play out around the legendary Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit (10/11 October).
