Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble claimed his maiden British Touring Car Championship victory in the final race at Snetterton, withstanding late-race pressure from NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton for the win.
Doble started the day by running the unfavourable hard tyre in the opening race in Norfolk, which saw him slip from fourth on the grid to ninth in the opening race – a less precipitous descent than some other drivers experienced during the day.
That allowed him to climb back up to sixth in race two, from where he was randomly drawn to start the final race of the day on pole position.
At the start, Doble quickly eased into a confident lead, with a gap of over a second from the hard tyre-shod Hyundai of Daniel Lloyd by the end of the opening lap.
The safety car then had to be called due to Stephen Jelley ending his race in the barriers on the exit of Williams corner, following contact with Daryl DeLeon which also saw him clip Tom Ingram before spearing into the Armco.
Racing resumed on lap six, Lloyd and fellow Hyundai racer Adam Morgan quickly succumbing to soft tyre-shod drivers, as One Motorsport’s Josh Cook moved into second into the Esses, followed by Sutton into third at Murrays.
Sutton overtook Cook for second on the Bentley Straight on lap nine, and the Ford driver quickly cut Doble’s 1.6-second advantage to just under two tenths in two laps.
Doble then withstood strong pressure from Sutton in the closing laps, and when Sutton made a slight mistake at the Wilson hairpin on the penultimate lap, it gave Doble breathing space.
Doble thus claimed his first win and the first for Power Maxed Racing since the 2019 season finale, whilst Sutton held second ahead of Cook.
Team Vertu’s Ingram made 11 places on the opening lap alone, and after steady progress thereafter, he finally overtook NAPA’s Sam Osborne for fourth on the penultimate lap.
Osborne claimed the second-best result of his 189-race BTCC career in fifth, ahead of team-mate Dan Cammish in sixth, although the race one winner had to battle hard to claim the position – three laps from the end he had tried to pass Toyota’s Ronan Pearson at the Esses, only to make contact and drop back behind Jake Hill before reclaiming the places in the final laps.
WSR’s Charles Rainford was seventh, ahead of stable-mate Hill in the Laser Tools Racing BMW in eighth.
The top ten was completed by Toyota’s Pearson and WSR’s Aiden Moffat.
In what was the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota team’s best race of the year so far, Árón Taylor-Smith was 11th ahead of Gordon Shedden in 12th, although James Dorlin retired to the pits after 11 laps.
Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley should have started from the front row of the grid alongside Doble, but an issue with the high pressure fuel pump prior to the race saw him miss the start and join three laps down.
Sutton continues to lead the drivers’ championship standings with 132 points, ahead of Ingram (117), Hill (93), Rowbottom (85) and Cammish (83) etc.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 88 | I |  |
Mikey DOBLE | Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 15 | 32:04.228 | 1:55.577 | 1 |
| 2 | 116 | M | |
Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 0.770 | 1:54.946 | 10 |
| 3 | 66 | I | |
Josh COOK | One Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R | 15 | 2.881 | 1:55.666 | 7 |
| 4 | 80 | M | |
Tom INGRAM | Team Vertu | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 15 | 8.595 | 1:55.733 | 25 |
| 5 | 77 | M | |
Sam OSBORNE | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 9.040 | 1:56.063 | 8 |
| 6 | 27 | M | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 15.064 | 1:55.802 | 20 |
| 7 | 99 | M | |
Charles RAINFORD | LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR | BMW 330i M Sport | 15 | 17.394 | 1:56.499 | 9 |
| 8 | 1 | M | |
Jake HILL | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 15 | 17.479 | 1:56.326 | 11 |
| 9 | 14 | M | |
Ronan PEARSON | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 15 | 18.195 | 1:56.476 | 13 |
| 10 | 16 | M | |
Aiden MOFFAT | LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR | BMW 330i M Sport | 15 | 18.971 | 1:56.640 | 16 |
| 11 | 40 | M |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 15 | 20.292 | 1:56.930 | 12 |
| 12 | 52 | M | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 15 | 21.513 | 1:56.391 | 17 |
| 13 | 17 | I | |
Dexter PATTERSON | ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport | CUPRA Leon | 15 | 23.000 | 1:57.237 | 21 |
| 14 | 93 | I | |
Max HALL | ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport | CUPRA Leon | 15 | 23.610 | 1:56.823 | 22 |
| 15 | 33 | M | |
Adam MORGAN | Team Vertu | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 15 | 28.961 | 1:58.006 | 5 |
| 16 | 123 | I | |
Daniel LLOYD | Restart Racing | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 15 | 31.751 | 1:58.042 | 3 |
| 17 | 32 | M | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 15 | 32.851 | 1:58.286 | 6 |
| 18 | 3 | M | |
Tom CHILTON | Team Vertu | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 15 | 41.118 | 1:58.899 | 4 |
| 19 | 2 | M |  |
Daryl DELEON | WSR | BMW 330i M Sport | 15 | 41.374 | 1:58.901 | 15 |
| 20 | 54 | M | |
Ryan BENSLEY | Team Vertu | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 15 | 43.805 | 1:58.493 | 19 |
| 21 | 50 | I | |
Nick HALSTEAD | Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 15 | 1:02.191 | 2:00.656 | 24 |
| 22 | 28 | I | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock | CUPRA Leon | 15 | 1:06.598 | 2:00.390 | 23 |
| R | 132 | M | |
James DORLIN | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 11 | DNF | 1:58.350 | 14 |
| R | 22 | I | |
Chris SMILEY | Restart Racing | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 11 | DNF | 1:58.078 | 2 |
| R | 12 | I | |
Stephen JELLEY | One Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R | 0 | DNF | N/A | 18 |