There are certain circuits that inherently command respect, and high-speed Thruxton in Hampshire – scene of the fourth instalment of the 2025 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship campaign this weekend (7-8 June) – is unquestionably one of them.
A former World War Two airfield and Royal Air Force base, since hosting its first race meeting more than half-a-century ago, Thruxton has established a fearsome reputation as the fastest track in the country, with BTCC drivers hitting an eye-watering 160mph around the back of the lap.
It is a place that rewards not only bravery and commitment behind the wheel but also a capable chassis, with the British-built, Speedworks Motorsport-prepared Toyota Corolla GR Sport having consistently shone there over its six seasons of competition to-date in the UK’s premier motor racing series. Indeed, in just its third appearance at Thruxton, the potent Japanese ‘hot hatch’ tallied an impressive double triumph, going on to race to 11 points finishes out of 12 this time last year.
Gordon Shedden has prevailed there seven times in the past – chalking up a double-top himself en route to the first of his three BTCC titles in 2012 – while registering 11 further podiums as well as multiple pole positions and fastest laps. One of the Scot’s most head-turning performances was a scintillating charge through the field from 25th to third in 2013, winding up barely 1.5 seconds shy of victory after being taken out of the lead in the previous race.
Shedden twice reached the rostrum in his most recent outing at Thruxton three years ago, while TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA team-mate Árón Taylor-Smith claimed his maiden championship pole at the circuit in 2015, and counts 19 points scores to his credit in Hampshire. The 35-year-old Irishman – the series’ reigning Independents’ Trophy winner – has taken the chequered flag inside the top ten in each of his last six races there.
Highly-rated young stablemates Ronan Pearson and James Dorlin may have less experience of the demanding 2.37-mile lap – the majority of which is spent in either fifth or sixth-gear – but both have demonstrated stellar form around it. Despite starting at the very back of the grid, the Fife native achieved a hat-trick of BTCC points finishes at Thruxton in 2024, and sped to a top five brace there in the Michelin Clio Cup Series.
Dorlin, meanwhile, notched up three victories and a full house of podiums at the track in the Renault UK Clio Cup in 2017-18, as he equalled the record for the most consecutive race wins in a single season in the series. The 26-year-old Yorkshireman enters the weekend buoyed by the finest performance of his rookie campaign to-date at Snetterton last time out, and like his fellow Corolla drivers, he is fired-up to head into battle.
Following Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session at 15:00 – available to watch on ITV Sport’s YouTube channel – every moment of Sunday’s doorhandle-to-doorhandle action will be shown live and in high-definition on ITV4 and ITVX from 11:00. The full race day schedule will additionally 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 know we have some work to do to unlock a bit more pace, but we’re constantly plugging away and tweaking the car to try to find the formula we need to run at the front. The Corolla feels good, it goes well round the corners, it stops well and it turns well – and all of those characteristics are certainly attributes at Thruxton.
“As a circuit, it’s a great challenge; it’s somewhere that fortune favours the brave, and I’ve been successful there in the past. Despite its high-speed nature, it isn’t necessarily as power-dependent as you might think – it’s more about carrying momentum throughout the lap. It’s also the kind of place – by virtue of its unique layout – that can throw a few anomalies into the mix, so let’s see what happens this weekend...”
Árón Taylor-Smith, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said: “We’re fighting tooth-and-nail to improve the situation and I’ve been blown away by everything I’ve seen from Speedworks Motorsport so far. Everyone within the team is giving it their absolute all, and even if the going is pretty tough right now, I feel very positive that we can turn things around.
“Thruxton has always been one of my favourite tracks on the calendar. The Corolla has been a benchmark there in the past, and with all the homework currently being done back at base, I feel we’ll be in a really strong position come the weekend.”
Ronan Pearson, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said: “I’m looking forward to the weekend and going into it with an open mind. Thruxton is a confidence circuit and certainly separates the men from the boys, as they say. You tend to warm yourself up slowly in FP1 to reacclimatise to it, before tightening the belts and pressing on. The car always feels extremely lively round there and moves about a lot underneath you, so you have to try to pre-empt that, but equally, it’s a place where you need to properly grab the bull by the horns.
“I don’t have a huge amount of experience there, but I was buoyed by the way the Corolla handled through the infield section at Snetterton so we will be trying to put some strong points on the board. Last year at Thruxton, I didn’t even get to set a lap in qualifying due to a problem with the car I was driving at the time, and that made race day really hard, so I definitely feel I have some unfinished business going back...”
James Dorlin, Driver, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA, said: “I’m feeling ready to attack another race weekend. From what we saw at Snetterton, it seems we’ve got quite a good car in the high-speed corners, which should play in our favour at Thruxton. I’ve not competed there since 2018, and while I have a decent record at the track, everybody keeps telling me it’s a different beast altogether in a touring car, so I’m fully expecting it to be a bit of an eye-opener in FP1!
“It’s a proper drivers’ circuit that always produces exciting action, and you can’t afford to be anything less than fully committed – it’s almost a case sometimes of simply throwing the car into the corner and hoping for the best! The team has been amazing and I’m feeling increasingly confident in the Corolla, and we’re working away and fine-tuning everything to keep finding little gains. We’ve got the car in a much better window now, so hopefully soon we’ll get a bit of luck to go with that to give us the clean run and results we deserve...”
