Restart Racing battled through a challenging race day at Oulton Park to secure three points finishes with Chris Smiley, while James Dorlin fought back from a difficult weekend to salvage points in the final race of the day.
The fourth round of the 2026 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship saw the team head to Oulton Park in Cheshire, with mixed weather conditions and a large difference between the soft and hard tyre compounds adding an extra layer of strategy across the weekend.
Both drivers had shown encouraging pace on Saturday, with Chris Smiley finishing third in the only free practice session of the weekend and James Dorlin ending the session sixth. However, qualifying proved frustrating for both drivers, with track limits penalties costing them laps that would have placed both cars well inside the top ten.
After making progress in the Race to Pole, Chris secured 10th on the grid for Sunday’s opening race, while James was initially 11th before a five-second penalty dropped him to 17th for race one.
Chris started race one on the faster soft tyre, while James was one of only five drivers to begin the race on the slower hard compound. Chris held 10th on the opening lap, defending well from Tom Chilton, while James dropped to 19th before quickly recovering to 17th after passing Sam Osborne and gaining from Lewis Selby spinning off at Lodge Corner.
A safety car was deployed on lap three to recover Selby’s car, extending the race to 16 laps. Once racing resumed, Chris continued to fight inside the top ten and moved up the order as Adam Morgan slowed and later pitted. Chris then applied pressure to championship leader Ash Sutton, but was unable to find a way through.
In the closing stages, Chris briefly dropped to 10th after being passed by Chilton at Cascades and De Leon around the outside at Island Bend. However, he used his final lap of hybrid boost to superb effect, passing De Leon on the run to the line to snatch ninth place by just 0.009 seconds. James finished 17th after a lonely race on the harder tyre.
Both cars ran the soft tyre for race two, with Chris starting ninth and James 17th. Chris was passed by a fast-starting rear-wheel drive BMW on the opening lap before battling hard with Gordon Shedden. James made progress early on, moving up to 16th, before both Restart Racing cars gained a further place when Aiden Moffat pitted with a problem.
Chris then passed Josh Cook, who was running on the hard tyre, across the start-finish line, before both cars moved up again after Chilton and Aron Taylor-Smith made contact at Dentons. Chris was soon part of a large train of cars battling from fourth to 10th, all being held up by Taylor-Smith’s defensive drive.
Although the pace in the car was strong, Chris was unable to make full use of it while trapped in traffic. He was shuffled back during a busy middle phase of the race, losing places to Dexter Patterson, Ricky Collard and Charles Rainford before fighting back past Rainford into Old Hall Corner on lap 12. In the closing stages, Chris dropped to 11th after Rainford passed him into Lodge, before Sam Osborne moved ahead on the final lap, leaving Chris to finish 12th.
Despite the result, Chris’s pace was clear, as he recorded the fastest lap of the Independent runners and the third-fastest lap overall. James also showed improved speed and climbed to 14th by the flag after passing Cook and closing onto the group ahead.
For race three, Chris started from pole position following a penalty for Taylor-Smith and the reverse grid draw, but faced a major challenge on the slower hard tyre while several of the cars around him were on the faster soft compound. James started 14th on the soft tyre, but his race was compromised before the lights went out when a power steering issue forced him into the pits at the end of the formation lap.
Chris made an excellent start to hold the lead despite pressure from the rear-wheel drive BMW behind. An early incident at Old Hall involving Taylor-Smith and Morgan brought out the safety car, with Chris leading the field and James rejoining at the back of the pack after his unscheduled pit stop.
When racing resumed, Chris came under heavy pressure from soft tyre runners. Rainford passed into turn three, before Collard, Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish also found a way through, although Chris continued to run as the leading hard tyre driver.
A second safety car was deployed on lap nine after contact between Selby and Chilton at Cascades. The timing was unfortunate for Chris, who had built a useful gap to the pack behind before the race was neutralised. At the restart, Josh Cook used the soft tyre advantage to move ahead, before Chris became locked into a strong defensive battle with Dan Rowbottom.
Chris defended superbly for several laps, holding the quicker Mercedes behind despite the tyre disadvantage, before Rowbottom eventually passed into Cascades on lap 18. Chris crossed the line seventh, a strong result given the hard tyre deficit and the pressure from a number of soft-shod rivals.
James, meanwhile, continued despite the unresolved power steering issue and fought through a physically demanding race to recover to 14th, passing De Leon on the final lap to secure points.
It was a weekend of mixed emotions for Restart Racing. Chris scored in all three races, with finishes of ninth, 12th and seventh, while James showed determination to rescue points from a weekend that had begun to unravel following his Race to Pole penalty and was made even harder by the race three power steering issue.
Chris said:
“That is Oulton Park over and out for another year. It was one of those days where I had to fight really hard for my positions.“In race one this morning, we finished 9th. I was happy enough with that, although the car was struggling a little bit with the balance. In race two, the car felt much better, but unfortunately we were just pinballed around and finished P12, which probably worked out well in the end because we ended up on pole for race three after number 11 was pulled out of the hat and we moved up a place due to Aron getting a penalty.
“It was always going to be really hard on the hard tyre, but I couldn’t have done any more. I got a great start and managed to keep the BMW behind me, but on the safety car restart, with all the cars behind me on the soft tyre, there wasn’t really a huge amount of point in having a massive race with them.
“It was about driving my own race and bringing it home. To finish seventh, I’m happy enough with that. Obviously, we had bigger targets this weekend, with an overall podium or maybe even better than that, but now it is a bit of a reset going into the summer break and there is plenty to work on.”
James said:
“That is Oulton Park all done and it has been tough, really tough. In the last race, we had no power steering from the outset. We tried to fix it when I came into the pits just before the start of the race, but unfortunately, we didn’t have time to get it sorted.“I had to fight and try to do the whole race with no power steering, which in these cars, with so much power going through the front wheels on slick tyres, is super tough. But I wasn’t going to give up. We just had to try and climb as far up as we could, or at least hang on to it and claw some points back.
“Fortunately, a couple of guys had an off and I managed to overtake a couple as well, so we salvaged some points and limited the damage as much as we could.
“We just need to reset after this. Hopefully that is all our bad luck over and done with, although I feel like I have said that after every race so far this year. It has been a tough start and there is a lot of potential, so hopefully in the second half of the season we can get some good results.”
Following the Oulton Park weekend, Chris sits 15th in the overall Drivers’ Championship and sixth in the Independent Drivers’ standings. James is 18th overall, ninth in the Independent Drivers’ standings and second in the Jack Sears Trophy.
Restart Racing is seventh in the overall Teams’ Championship and fourth in the Independent Teams’ standings as the championship heads into the summer break.
Championship Standings
Following the fourth round:
Drivers’ Championship: Smiley 15th, Dorlin 18th
Teams’ Championship: 7th
Independent Drivers: Smiley 6th, Dorlin 9th
Independent Teams: 4th
Jack Sears Trophy: Dorlin 2nd