BTCC: Two days of testing at Croft completed and qualifying records being smashed

After two days of testing ahead of the 2025 season at Croft, the now more nimble cars have shown electric pace even squashing the Qualifying record, but who looked the best at the end?

Day 1 Morning Test: Sutton sets the pace

Ash Sutton continued to show he is at the top of his game in the first test setting the fastest time of the session which was already quicker than the qualifying lap record set by Tom Chilton as the lighter cars proving to be faster than the hybrid heavy cars of the year prior. The four-time BTCC Champion completed 38 laps of the circuit as he had a solid first session where he looked right at home with the car like he has since joining the team.

Josh Cook after making a move back to One Motorsport over the winter, he set the second fastest time of the morning session showing he was able to extract solid times out of the car as across multiple runs he put it within that same region. Meanwhile newcomer Max Hall also impressed as his lap time was only a few hundredths behind Cook’s in the session. Hall driving the Cupra Leon, a car which has not been the strongest in comparison to it’s rivals over the last few years, looks to be in better form with these lighter cars.

Cammish put his car 4th fastest just over a tenth clear of reigning champion Jake Hill in 5th. Ingram sat only 6 thousandths behind his title rival in 6th also seemed very happy with the car over the morning. Meanwhile, the second fastest rookie that session, Charles Rainford, also completed the most number of laps (including in and out laps) with a total of 59 laps by the end of the morning runs.

A total of 699 laps was completed between all the drivers across the first nearly 3 hours of running.

Day 1 Afternoon Test: Hall shows strong form

Max Hall continued to impress in his Cupra Leon as he smashed what was Ash Sutton’s time in the morning session by over half a second as he topped the time sheets just 29 and 39 thousandths clear of Dan Cammish and Jake Hill respectively. The young Cupra driver had already shown that he was capable of jumping in cars and being immediately fast, like his rookie year in Mini Challenge last year, and continues to do well by the end of the first official day of testing. Meanwhile Cammish and Hill were hot on his heels in terms of lap time as they both finished the day milliseconds behind his best, with Cammish having an ideal lap time (a combination of the drivers best three sectors from the session) faster than anyone else. Hill also set the most number of laps that session with 46 laps completed, just two more than Mikey Doble in the sole Vauxhall Astra.

Ingram a couple tenths behind Hill this session, sets the 4th fastest time just ahead of Jack Sears winner Mikey Doble and a few more tenths clear of three-time champion Gordon Shedden. Adam Morgan, who is adjusting well to the front wheel drive Hyundai after 4 years of driving the BMW, looked to show promising and consistent pace setting back-to-back lap times within the region of his fastest time. Another 717 laps were completed during the afternoon session, already pushing us well over the 1000 lap mark after a single day of testing.

Day 2 Morning Test: Cammish tops morning running

Cammish after being only a few hundredths off of Hall in yesterday afternoons session, he continued that form with him topping the time sheets the next morning only three hundredths off of what he done in a much warmer afternoon. This time put him a couple tenths clear of the rest as Ingram set the second fastest time of the session by just a small margin clear of Doble in the Astra. Behind them, Max Hall continued to impress alongside Un-Limited Motorsport teammate Dexter Patterson as the two Cupra Leon drivers set the 4th and 5th fastest times respectively, both managing to put themselves in the 1:20’s

Sutton set the 6th fastest time ahead of the two One Motorsport cars as the NAPA driver was only half a second off of teammate Cammish. The driver with the most laps completed in the morning session was Daryl DeLeon with 53 laps by the WSR driver. No other driver surpassed the 50-lap boundary as the next closest drivers would be Cammish and Doble with 41 laps.

Day 2 Afternoon Test: Doble tops final test session at Croft

The sole Vauxhall Astra of last years Jack Sears Trophy winner Mikey Doble topped the final session by nearly a quarter of a second to Dan Cammish with the overall fastest time of the two-day test and over half a second faster than Tom Chilton’s qualifying record set last year. Behind them was DeLeon who once more set the most laps in the session with 63 laps across the afternoon and was only a few hundredths off of Cammish.

Sutton and Hall break into the top 5 fastest times by the end of the session with both of them, Shedden, Rainford as well as Cook setting 1:20.8’s. Hall and Cammish were the only drivers to remain in the top 5 across all 4 sessions having consistently put in the top end times. Between all the drivers, they nearly 6000 miles and over 2800 laps by the end of the test. The drivers will have another opportunity to do testing at the Media Day at Donighton Park on April 15th before we go racing a week and a half later at the same venue.