BTCC The Contenders: Mikey Doble

After winning the Jack Sears Trophy last season and the Independent Teams Championship alongside teammate Árón Taylor-Smith, Mikey Doble is currently heading into 2025 as the only Power Maxed Racing driver aiming to lead the team to back-to-back Independent Drivers and potentially Teams titles.

Doble started karting racing across various UK championships, he would go on to compete in the Super 1 National Super Cadet Championship in 2012 where he would finish 5th. However, his racing dreams would end at karting for the time being as he would go on to take up golf for 5 years winning county and collegiate level titles.

He would make his return to racing in 2018 with his car racing debut. He would compete in the BMW Compact Cup where he would finish the year 20th in the standings in his debut year, consistently within the top 15. The following year he would finish 5th in the overall standings with a best finish of second place. He would be only one of two drivers who finished inside the top 15 in all 16 races that year. 2020 saw him continue to do well taking a sixth overall in the standings before he made the jump to the Ginetta GT5 Challenge for 2021, in a dual campaign alongside the BMW Compact Cup.

His first year doing both championships led to fairly solid success as he would claim his first two race wins in cars in the BMW Compact Cup while also taking 9 podiums across the year to finish runner up in the standings by years end. Meanwhile his debut Ginetta Campaign would also be a solid showing of form. Claiming two podiums across the year and a pole position finishing the year 4th in the standings and a lot of confidence heading into 2022.

Doble’s 2022 campaign would consist of both the BMW Compact Cup and the Ginetta GT5 Challenge once more and he would be successful in both. The BMW series was almost completely and utterly dominated by Doble, taking both wins in the season opener and another three wins the following weekend at Snetterton. All while alongside a busy Ginetta GT5 Campaign which saw 5 of the 7 race weekends before the summer break alone. But this would not even be the most difficult part of the campaign. With both championship finales taking place on the same weekend, he would need to finish one of the three races in the BMW Compact Cup at Silverstone to win that title, then go 60 miles to Donighton Park and claw back a 26-point deficit in the season finale to take the title. After finishing race one in the BMW Compact Cup, he would go to Donighton Park to contest the Ginetta GT5 Challenge finale. Having already taken a double pole and the win on the first race of the weekend on the Saturday, he would take the championship lead heading into the Sunday finale. He would eventually come out on top in an intense three-way fight which was just separated by just 8 points. He would finish second that race which was enough to win the championship, making him a double champion on the same weekend.

This grit and determination would be enough to land him a seat on the BTCC grid for 2023 with Power Maxed Racing. Doble would claim points in his second race in the BTCC with a 5th place overall which was also 2nd place in the Jack Sears Trophy. But that 5th place was also a win in the Independents Class, already showing he is capable of competing with top tier drivers. He would continue to score points in both classes and the overall championship all year long with that 5th place being his best overall finish of the season. He would take an overall pole position at the penultimate race weekend at Silverstone, being one of the only non-Napa Racing driver to take a pole position. He would finish the year 20th overall but would have solid years in the other two classes. The Independent’s class he would take another three podiums after his class win at Donighton Park and a year of consistent finishes would mean he would finish 5th in class by seasons end. Meanwhile his Jack Sears campaign would be excellent from a rookie driver. Claiming four wins in the class and standing on the class podium in nearly two thirds of the races, he would finish the year runner up to only his teammate Andrew Watson and tied on points with Dexter Patterson, who he beat on countback.

2024 would be even stronger for Doble as he would take points in all but 4 races that season also claiming his first overall podium in the BTCC at Oulton Park, a race he almost won before Jake Hill overtook him on the final lap. A season of consistency also led him to the Jack Sears Trophy by years end and would be Independent Team Champion alongside Taylor-Smith as well. He would put in impressive performances all year and would end the season 12th in the overall standings.

Heading into 2025, his focus will be fully on the Independents Drivers title now having claimed the Jack Sears Trophy but with him being the only PMR driver at this time, it will be difficult to go for back-to-back Independent Teams Championships.