Restart Racing officially launched their 2025 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship campaign this weekend at Donington Park, debuting a pair of newly built Hyundai i30 N Fastbacks. In warm and sunny conditions, a welcome change for the opening round of the season, the team showed strong pace, fought hard across all three races, and came away with an Independent race win and the lead in the Independents’ Championship.
Qualifying on Saturday saw Chris secure 15th on the grid, while new signing Dan Lloyd finished 11th as both drivers continued to get to grips with their new cars. With dry conditions and the new turbo boost system replacing hybrid technology for 2025, it promised to be a weekend of opportunities and challenges.
The opening race saw both drivers battling hard in the midfield. Dan climbed into the top ten early on, only to be hit at the final chicane and pushed back to 16th. Chris steadily worked his way forward, engaging in a fierce battle with Charles Rainford’s BMW, and capitalised when Dan was pushed wide. A safety car on lap 11 extended the race by three laps, bunching the field and setting up a late sprint to the flag. Chris crossed the line in 10th, with Dan recovering to finish 12th, ensuring both drivers scored points in the season opener.
In race two, contact at the first corner dropped Chris back to 13th, while Dan’s race came to an early end with accident damage following more contact in the early stages. Despite this, Chris produced a brilliant recovery drive. After regaining places through the middle part of the race, he executed a superb double pass on Dexter Patterson and Daryl DeLeon to move up to 8th and claim the Independent race victory.
The final race of the day saw Chris start 8th and Dan 23rd. Dan made a superb start, gaining six places on the opening lap and moving into the points by lap three. Chris battled hard at the front, holding steady despite struggling with tyre degradation on the softer compound. Dan continued to push forward, climbing as high as 14th before an overheating engine put him back down the order. Dan’s miserable race day was compounded by being pushed wide and eventually forced to retire on the final lap after further contact. Chris maintained a strong pace, briefly moving up to seventh, before ultimately finishing eighth and narrowly missing out on a second Independent win after the medium-shod Vauxhall Astra of Mikey Doble slipped passed at the final corner.
The team leaves Donington Park encouraged by the strong pace shown throughout the weekend and with a valuable haul of points to begin the 2025 season. Now, attention turns to the second round of the season at Brands Hatch, one of the most iconic circuits on the calendar and the closest to the capital, London, where the team is aiming to build on a strong opening weekend.
Chris: “It has been a really positive day here at Donington Park. The car has felt great all day, and we made good progression across all three races. Yesterday’s qualifying, starting P15, did not really reflect where we should have been; we were definitely out of position. So to get ourselves into the top ten in all three races today is a fantastic achievement.
In race one, we came from 15th up to 10th. In race two, we finished eighth and took the win in the Independent Drivers’ class. Then in race three, we finished second in the Independents.
We leave Donington with a really positive mindset. There is a little bit of work to do, we had an issue with the radio in race three, which made it really hard to hear the team. I could not hear how many laps were left, and unfortunately, I used up my turbo boost a bit too early. I thought there were only five laps to go when there were actually ten, so that hurt us a little towards the end. But overall, there are plenty of positives to take away.
We are leaving here leading the Independents’ Championship, and I am really excited to get to Brands Hatch in a few weeks’ time.”
Dan: “So that’s the first race day of the season done, and honestly, it could not have gone much worse.
There were some positives to take away. The pace was really strong, qualifying went well, and the guys did a mega job with the car, it is honestly the best the car has felt so far this year. Massive credit to the team for that.
“But the races themselves were a disaster. I got hit off in race one, then got hit off again in race two. In race three, the engine overheated and, just to top it off, I got hit off again. Two DNFs and a 12th place are definitely not what we deserved today.
“Honestly, I am absolutely gutted because the speed was there, and we showed we could be right in the fight. It is just so frustrating when things are out of your control.
“We will dust ourselves off, learn what we can, and come back fighting at Brands Hatch.”
