Regardless of one podium within the British Touring Automotive Championship at Donington Park GP, a weekend of woeful reliability points plagued Crew VERTU and Restart Racing.
Throughout a Donington Park outing that noticed Adam Morgan proceed to star in his CPRL Mercedes A35 Saloon, contrasting fortunes noticed almost-everything go mistaken for 3 of the six Hyundai i30N Fastbacks.
Even then, it was one other weekend of not sufficient for a fourth – reigning Drivers’ Champion Tom Ingram.
Ingram would climb nicely from P9 to the ultimate podium place in Race 2, however couldn’t overtake Ash Sutton regardless of a tyre and TOCA Turbo Enhance benefit.
Such has been the story all through 2026, actually, as Sutton’s new NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus Saloon has been a minimum of one higher than Ingram’s Hyundai far as a rule.
The result leaves Ingram understandably pissed off, with the now-moustacheless Crew VERTU man reducing a resigned determine throughout his post-Race 2 media obligations.
“It’s robust to take after we had extra increase, medium tyre, with Ash on a tough tyre with much less increase,” Ingram conceded.
“It’s exhausting to take to not be capable of take it to [Sutton] and compete. However, that’s the place we’re.”
Whereas NAPA Racing UK are rocking their all-new Focus Saloon for 2026, now the popular form for touring automotive groups, the Hyundai i30N Fastback stands out as one of many oldest packages on the grid.
First run in 2020, being one 12 months older than the Corollas run by Speedworks, the Hyundais at the moment are pushing in the direction of the highest percentile of longevity with regards to the Subsequent Era Touring Automotive fashions.
It doesn’t assist that the grid has seen a quartet of recent fashions enter the sequence since 2025.
At present, Ingram is threatened by Dan Cammish pushing him exterior of the Drivers’ Championship prime two for the primary time 5 seasons. Cammish, powered by his new NAPA Ford, is only one of many who’ve begun to take outcomes from the Excelr8 Hyundai.
Energy Maxed Racing’s Audi S3 Saloon has additionally been a strong-peddler, as has WSR’s 330i MSport, and evidently the high-flying scrap-salvaged Mercedes that CPRL have labored so exhausting on.
Maybe, its efficiency in 2026 may signify that Crew VERTU have extracted each little bit of tempo out of their chassis. In spite of everything, this can be a automotive that has seen Ingram declare round 400 factors in every of the final 5 seasons. It may possibly’t have dropped off the boil so immediately with out cause.
Tom Chilton one other Crew VERTU struggler as his Hyundai packs up time and again
Between Tom Chilton and the soon-to-be-mentioned Chris Smiley, the fantastic weekend at Donington was not the best displaying of reliability for the Hyundai pack.
Whereas the Mountune engine has flown since NAPA’s saloon change, Crew VERTU’s Swindon Powertrains motor has seen a complete role-reversal to its fantastic 2025 type.
Chilton by no means actually received the prospect to get his elbows out on Sunday, however the efficiency hole was noticeable as Ingram struggled to seek out any alternative to go Sutton, even with TOCA Turbo Enhance in play.
Although, if there was an award for probably the most optimistic individual in motorsport, it might probably go to Chilton.
The BTCC veteran was ever the optimist after a weekend which noticed his probability of competitiveness ripped out of his palms, posting on X that he ‘had a blast’.
In all three of Sunday’s races, Chilton skilled issue-after-issue that noticed his automotive repeatedly grind to a halt earlier than he may get it re-fired. As soon as, it induced a Security Automotive, however the remainder of the time Chilton must get better to the pack on his personal.
All-in-all, it created a reasonably torrid trio of outcomes for the person who claimed his first win of 2026 at Knockhill, with P20, P14, and P17 the reward for his resilience.
“Outcomes sensible, this has been a weekend to neglect with a variety of electrical points that have been exterior our management, and which prevented us from profiting from the tempo we had within the automotive,” Chilton lamented.
“Within the Qualifying Race we set the third quickest lap and we have been the second quickest automotive on the market in Race 3, however we’ve simply had an unbelievable quantity of unhealthy luck – and weren’t the one ones.
“The staff continues to work exhausting and gave me a package deal that I felt was able to successful a race, so it’s irritating that we weren’t in a position to construct on the victory at Knockhill.
“This can be a weekend to place behind us, and transfer on.”
Restart Racing undergo via a weekend of trial by [mis]fireplace
When your luck is out, it’s out.
Restart Racing went into the weekend with the joy of welcoming Dan Lloyd again to the fold, the reigning Independents’ Trophy victor and man who claimed victory for them at Silverstone final 12 months.
Nevertheless, that pleasure wouldn’t final for lengthy.
A gear lever problem in Free Observe would value Lloyd half of the session on his return, with the loss much more essential given the session’s standing as the one observe of the weekend.
As soon as he did get on observe, he repeatedly struggled with the rear finish. Smiley additionally struggled with rotation on nook exit, and commented that the automotive felt strangled in a straight line in comparison with others.
The outcome was a comparatively disappointing P13 and P16 forward of Sunday’s Race 1, which might see Smiley maintain P13 and Lloyd climb to P15. Nevertheless, a five-second penalty for overboost would push Smiley again and kickstart the downwards spiral for the staff.
Race 2 was way more optimistic for Smiley, with a climb to P10 rewarding him with the reverse-grid pole place for the ultimate race of the weekend. However, the speak after Race 2 was surrounding Lloyd.
Having dropped locations all through the operating, his Hyundai suffered a fuel-line failure and caught fireplace on the ultimate lap – rendering his automotive ineffective for the ultimate race of the day.
Evidently, the racing overlords had seen the staff’s struggles. However, they solely supplied the pole place to Smiley to cruelly rip hopes from the staff as soon as extra.
Smiley began nicely as he chased his first BTCC victory since Rockingham 2018, and did defy the in-form Morgan for one lap, however finally misplaced out at McLeans on the second tour.
His compromised exit additionally noticed Aiden Moffat and Dexter Patterson via, earlier than contact from Patterson at Melbourne noticed Smiley despatched right into a half-spin.
With the lead and hopes of a podium misplaced, ill-fate noticed another alternative to strike and promptly produced a misfire that ended Restart’s day on the facet of the observe.
“It’s been a really robust day at the moment,” a pissed off Smiley stated.
“I ended up on pole for Race 3, received begin, received my head down and all the pieces form of went backwards from there on in.
“I had contact on the Melbourne Hairpin with one other automotive, simply took me out on the hairpin. After which a lap later we had a difficulty with the engine, the engine began to misfire.
“It simply form of sums up our weekend. It’s been a troublesome one, that’s for certain.”