New era for Laser Tools Racing in full swing in the BTCC

Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport entered into a new era ahead of the 2026 season, with new cars, drivers and a new collaboration with Speedworks. TouringCars.Net spoke with Team Principal Mark Blundell and drivers Gordon Shedden and Árón Taylor-Smith at the season opener.

The team, under the stewardship of Blundell, has undergone significant changes – both operationally and culturally – that promise to reshape its trajectory.

With experienced drivers Shedden and Taylor-Smith joining forces, the outfit, which lifted the 2024 British Touring Car Championship title with Jake Hill, is poised for a fresh assault on the championship, blending proven expertise with renewed ambition.

The most notable shift is the partnership with Speedworks, which now provides the operating team for MB Motorsport, after four years with West Surrey Racing.

As Mark Blundell explains to TouringCars.Net: “From an operating team perspective, we are now collaborating with Speedworks. From an MB Motorsport perspective, we’ve now got two cars. Two fundamental big parts of the programme have been changed.

“So, there’s been a lot of work behind the scenes, with new partners and new drivers but also personalities and cultural differences of what we’ve been used to the last few years.

“So, overall, a lot of change, but we’re heading in the right direction.”

This “plug and play” model is unique in the BTCC paddock. MB Motorsport retains control over engineering and data staff, while Speedworks supplies the mechanics and cars.

Blundell is keen to clarify the team’s identity: “The team is Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport. That’s the team, that’s the entry. Our operating cast is Speedworks; they supply the mechanics, they supply the cars. But the team is MB Motorsport.

“And from the point of view also with us, we also employ the engineers. So, all the engineering staff and the data staff are on our payroll, our team managers on our payroll. So purely it’s like a plug and play from that perspective.”

The integration of new personalities and the blending of operational cultures have been a challenge, but one that Blundell welcomes.

“Sometimes people get a bit confused with the way that we do things because we do it differently. It’s not to say it’s right or wrong, I just say it’s different.

“But I respectfully ask people to understand how we do it and what we’re doing it for,” says Blundell.

This openness extends to collaboration with Speedworks. “We’re not closing off, and we’re not saying you can’t have what we feel is beneficial to this. We’re saying actually it’s open book. And as I say, I think you can see that they had a great result next door [at Speedworks Corolla Racing].

“We didn’t quite get right what we needed to, and that’s obvious in the first race of the season. But I think there is a lot of potential. It’s probably just not been extracted as well as what it could be yet, but I think that’s going to come out.”

Now in his seventh year of competing in the BTCC with his own team, Blundell’s unconventional route into touring car team ownership can be traced back to a deal that never quite got off the ground.

“When he first set his sights on the BTCC in 2019, his intention was not to build a front‑wheel‑drive programme at all, but to race a rear‑wheel‑drive Subaru that better suited both his experience and driving style.

“My original plan was to drive a rear‑wheel drive touring car… I’d actually had a deal to drive the Subaru,” Blundell explained.

That opportunity collapsed when the Subaru operation became financially unstable, leaving Blundell with a stark choice: walk away or adapt. With commercial partners to protect and no viable rear‑wheel‑drive alternative available, he opted for the latter, stepping into front‑wheel‑drive machinery despite openly acknowledging it did not play to his strengths.

“I couldn’t take [primary sponsor] Hewlett-Packard into an operation that was fiscally unstable at the time, and I had to go and find another opportunity. The only thing available to me was a front‑wheel drive car,” he says. “My style of driving is I hit the throttle pedal three or four times in the corner. That’s not what a front‑wheel drive car needs.”

The move ultimately hastened Blundell’s shift away from the driver’s seat and into shaping MB Motorsport from the pit wall – a transition that laid the foundations for the structure and philosophy the team now carries into the 2026 season.

For three-time champion Shedden, now in his second year in a Toyota, the off-season has brought both continuity and change.

“It’s different. Clearly I drove the car last year, but it’s interesting to see the way the guys work. Obviously, with two cars running under the MB banner now we’ve got to pull our finger out and do the best job we can.”

Shedden highlights technical evolution with the Toyota Corolla. “Pre-season’s been pretty good. I think probably we’ll be better when we get the car on the soft tyre. The car just works a lot better in that configuration.

“Everything we’ve done has made sense in pre-season. We just didn’t quite get it right in qualifying [at Donington Park] and it means you start too far down the path and it becomes very difficult.”

MB Motorsport and Speedworks are now the only operations running hatchbacks in the 2026 BTCC, but Shedden believes the team’s choice of car should be celebrated.

“It’s the only [hatchback], but it’s also the only car that’s actually built in Britain. From Toyota’s point of view, they are proud that the car is, from a British manufacturing point of view, built in Derby and I think that should be celebrated and shouldn’t have any negatives to it.

“It is really important that the car that people can see racing on a Sunday is what they can go and buy on a Monday. It’s what the ethos of BTCC was. The championship’s been built on that, and I think that we’ve got to be careful that we don’t lose sight of that.”

Taylor-Smith describes the changes as the “same but different” and believes it represents a step up, especially as he is now working with Hill’s race engineer from the 2024 season, Craig Porley.

“Bringing in Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport just brings a wealth of expertise,” added the Irishman. “At the end of the day, Craig and MB have won this championship. And that to me is all I’ve needed around me for a long time.

“The infrastructure of what they give and the technical knowledge is what the big step up in performance actually is.”

Taylor-Smith is quick to acknowledge the contributions of Speedworks, but feels MB Motorsport adds a new dimension.

“That’s not to say anyone within Speedworks did a bad job last year, because they categorically did a great job. But I feel now we get added benefits of people who have won this and know exactly what to do and when to do it.

“It’s just making sure you’re levelling up both on and off track. And that’s what joining MB has allowed me to do.”

Working with Mark Blundell and MBP has been transformative for Taylor-Smith: “It’s a big step up. They set the standard in terms of what is expected in this battle.

“They bring so much experience to help further my career in this paddock. I want to do another 20 years of this and I want to do it with MB.

“We’re structuring a long-term plan to make this as beneficial as possible for the foreseeable future. It’s early days and we’re learning so much that will stand to us over the time.

“I feel we can have that really strong run significantly earlier [in the season] with MB Motorsport, because they understand me even better than I understand myself.

“Working with Craig is the first time in my career I’ve ever had a championship-winning engineer on the car.

“All the pre-season [testing] has gone great. I feel we’ve really progressed in terms of what the chassis needs, especially at our weaker points in terms of when it’s high grip, when it’s very hot.

“That’s where we kind of had a little bit of trouble last year, where now I don’t feel that’s going to be a remote worry to us.”

Team Principal Blundell has set pragmatic targets for the season: “If we are in a situation where we’re knocking in top sixes, that is a successful platform to build from.

“Judging by what we can see in pit lane with the big teams and the big operations, they’ve definitely invested heavily [in new cars] and there’s progress in performance.

“For us, we’re going to have to come in and do a little bit more than what we anticipated in some ways, but there’s also an Independents’ title to go for, and that’s definitely a target. That’s the success levels to measure from.”

Race victories remain the ultimate goal, but Blundell tempers expectations: “We’re all out there to try and win, so whether it’s circumstantial and we fall into something, or whether it’s done on merit and performance, which is what we always want to achieve, that’s always the goal.

“But you’ve got to be realistic in this game and keep expectations in check, but also don’t give up the passion and desire to try and always succeed.

“We don’t go racing for a vanity programme. We go racing to succeed and we go racing actually to deliver value back to our partners. And value back to our partners is enhancing business.

“We’re a marketing agency that goes racing, not the other way around,” says Blundell.