Rounds 25, 26, and 27 of the 2026 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship brought a suffering Sunday for Restart Racing, as issues curtailed the squad’s best efforts.
A promising Saturday saw the Restart Racing Hyundai i30N Fastback demonstrate its potential at the hands of Chris Smiley and Dan Lloyd. Free Practice saw our pair deliver a tidy set of laps in the ultra-tight field, while Dan shone in the Race to Pole and scored himself a fifth-place finish for Sunday’s action. Chris also showed pace worthy of running towards the top, but a tyre delamination in the Race to Pole meant he had to start Race One towards the back of the pack.
In contrast to Saturday’s bright conditions around Silverstone’s 1.64-mile National circuit, Sunday in Northamptonshire brought a smattering of rain that avoided the opening two races, before heavy downpour forced teams onto the wet tyre to start Race Three.
Race One told a story of contrasting fortunes for our duo. Starting in the incorrect engine map saw Dan’s bright qualifying effort slip in lap one, as he fell down to 11th. However, Chris would gain three positions as he looked to charge through the field. Our #22 would add another two to that tally on the next tour, pulling himself to 15th.
The next laps were battling, with the majority of the field barely separated. But, Chris would pass Lewis Selby on lap eight for 14th, before jumping past Dexter Patterson for 13th on lap 10. At the same time, Dan found himself back in the points by also nudging ahead of Selby.
What followed for the remainder of the outing was a fierce battle between the Restart Racing Hyundai and three of the NAPA Racing UK cars: Ash Sutton, Dan Cammish, and Selby.
Chris would overtake Sutton for 12th on lap 11, before Sutton would push past in lap 14 – in a move that also saw Cammish momentarily get by. However, Chris would inherit 12th as Cammish boxed with an issue. This also promoted Dan to 14th, as he fought with Selby and eventually bettered him, before losing out to Tom Ingram on the final lap.
The final lap was also a dramatic one for Chris, who just about beat Sutton to the line for 11th, with his standout drive seeing him move 11 places during the 22 laps of racing.
Unfortunately, Race Two saw Dan’s car unable to start, before a time penalty put an end of Chris’ hopes of being in a good position ahead of the reverse-grid Race Three.
A boost leak that dampened Dan’s performance towards the end of Race One melted part of his engine and, although the team tried everything to get him out for even two laps of the race, it proved too tall of a task. However, Chris’ race would start positively as, despite falling to 13th early, he would climb back to 11th by lap nine.
With an out-of-position Dan Cammish behind, Chris fought hard but eventually lost out on lap 11, before reclaiming his place by passing Mikey Doble on lap 15. The #22 Restart Racing Hyundai would pass Gordon Shedden for 10th on the same lap, before grabbing ninth from Tom Chilton two laps later. However, a time penalty for track limits hurt Chris’ strong outing, relegating his car to 18th by the flag.
The hard work of the team would see Dan’s car fit to start Race Three from the back, with heavy rain offering promise of an entertaining race ahead. It started well for Dan, climbing past Nick Halstead and Nic Hamilton on the first tour. Chris would also gain one lap later, getting past Lewis Selby.
Dan’s strong start would continue with two further overtakes: Ryan Bensley on lap five and Lewis Gilbert on lap six. Charging in 17th, he found himself behind Doble as Chris got past him for 15th on lap 10. The trio would continue battling as Chris passed an off-track Sam Osborne, claiming 14th as Dan capitalised on a Dexter Patterson mistake to take 15th.
Osborne would get back past Chris as the battling calmed, but he would drive home in 14th for some points to end the challenging weekend. Dan also looked likely, but Gilbert stole his 15th-place position on the final lap of the day.
Chris said:
“So that’s race day finished at Silverstone.“Race One this morning, considering where we started, was a positive one. We made up 11 places, and the setup change we made to the car overnight really worked. In race trim, the car felt good.
“For Race Two, the guys made a slight mistake when they adjusted the setup on the car. Unfortunately, it just didn’t feel as good as it had in Race One. We finished 11th on the road, but received a five-second penalty for track limits, which dropped us back to 18th.
Then, for Race Three, the heavens opened. The only positive was that I didn’t have to use the medium tyre, which was the option today. We finished 14th. Our lap times were good enough to be inside the top ten somewhere, but the cars are so close around here that it’s really hard to make progress.
“As a whole, it was another frustrating weekend for us. We’ve got one final round to go at Brands Hatch in a few weeks’ time, so hopefully we can catch a break and come away with some decent results.”
Dan said:
“So, just finished Race Three at Silverstone. Not a good day whatsoever. There’s no way to fluff it, really.“Race One we started fifth. Unfortunately, we got a boost leak, which caused a lot of damage to the manifold and the wastegate. The guys tried their best to fix it for Race Two, but couldn’t get it out.
“Race Three was wet. We managed to get the car out, but the engine was still lacking a lot of power. So all three races were ruined, basically, which is such a shame because we had such a good day yesterday.
“So, really gutted about that one. The engine will go back now, be checked and tested, and fingers crossed it’s okay for Brands GP, my favourite circuit on the calendar. Hopefully we can get some kind of result there.
“The team worked really hard and the car was great yesterday, so we’ll try to take the positives.”
Focus now turns to the final weekend of the 2026 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch, with Restart Racing looking to bounce back and end the season with a flourish.
Championship Standings
Following the Silverstone meeting:
Drivers’ Championship: Smiley 16th, Lloyd 21st
Teams’ Championship: 8th
Independent Drivers: Smiley 8th, Lloyd 12th
Independent Teams: 4th