The British Touring Car Championship heads to Brands Hatch in Kent this weekend (14/15 May), as Rounds 4, 5 and 6 are set to get underway.
The BTCC season kicked off on the 23rd-24th April, with Ciceley Motorsport celebrating a supurb start to the season at Donington Park. Adam and George, together celebrated a podium finish and two independent category wins!
This season is the first to implement the hybrid run units, which regenerate power and allows drivers 15 seconds per lap of hybrid deployment. It’s been a learning curve for all the teams in pre-testing and remained a challenge over the race weekend at Donington.
In qualifying, George impressed everyone with a time that was fifth fastest, just 0.219s off pole position, while Adam lined up a relieved eighth after having a fuel pump fail, which prevented a second run.
The first BTCC race of 2022 began with a frantic lead battle and a safety car period. As the leaders tripped over themselves and delayed each other, Adam cleared a frantic battle and caught the leading group to finish fifth while George’s BTCC debut resulted in sixth place after a highly impressive drive. They also took a one-two finish in the Independents’ class which was another boost to the squad.
The cars lined up fifth and sixth for race two, Adam was in trouble as a gear had worked loose in the transmission in race one which prevented the engagement with the hybrid system and with no spares available, he had to complete the remaining two races without the extra power available to everyone else. Adam battled to a remarkable fourth place. George was the star of the race as he bolted to second place on the run to the first corner and finished in third place overall as well as winning the Independents’ category.
“I didn’t think it could get better than race one,” said George, “but I made a good start and had Adam behind me to protect me from the pack. It feels amazing!”
George was penalised in race three with a drive-through penalty for jumping the start and finished 20th, while Adam, again forced to run without hybrid, finished in sixth place after a tremendously consistent day which showed the pace of the cars and the giant step forward the team has made on the engineering side.
Ciceley Motorsport’s new Commercial Manager Ash Gallagher was delighted with the results: “We have had an absolutely fantastic weekend. Two Independent wins are a great boost and so is the fact that the cars were so solid on pace in all three races. We are all thrilled for George getting his first podium in only his second BTCC race, while Adam’s results without hybrid show how good his racecraft is and how well engineered our BMW 330e M Sports are. Steve Farrell and the team have worked really hard over the winter and the whole team, as well as our commercial partners, are buzzing about the weekend. We can’t wait for Brands Hatch!”
The Donington results put Adam fifth and George ninth in the championship standings, with Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport second in the Teams’ Championship. Adam leads the Independents’ Trophy with George third with Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport the leading Independent team. The BTCC’s Jack Sears Trophy runs for drivers who haven’t scored an overall podium before the start of the season, and although George now has an overall podium to his name, he is second in that competition as well.
