Lady luck doesn’t shine at season opener for reigning BTCC Independent Champion Taylor-Smith

The reigning Independents Champion arrived at the 1.95-mile East Midlands venue excited to begin a fresh chapter with the support of Toyota, the world’s largest car manufacturer and Speedworks Motorsport, one of the BTCC’s most successful teams in the modern era.

After a successful preseason testing program aspirations were high ahead of the season opener at Donington Park. Taylor-Smith spent Saturday morning’s brace of free practice sessions further acclimatising to his new Toyota Corolla GR Sport challenger, then began qualifying in comfortable fashion, clearing the first elimination with relative ease.

Although the Dubliner would be denied his now almost-customary spot in the final ‘Quick Six’ shootout – having managed it on five occasions last season – he missed out by a mere 0.030 seconds in Q2. The team changed Taylor-Smith’s engine overnight after discovering a latent issue, fuelling optimism for better results on race day.

From the fifth row of the grid, a steady start in the opening race kept Taylor-Smith in the mix for a top-ten finish to start the new season, but a further technical gremlin forced the 35-year-old to pit and retire early from the first of 30 races this campaign.

Undeterred, he fought back in a typically-upbeat fashion and set about recovering lost ground from the back in Race 2. A steady climb through the order, using the experience, racecraft and nous that make Taylor-Smith a 22-time podium finish in the UK’s premier motorsport series, put him on the very fringes of the points after just a few racing laps.

But again, Lady Luck intervened against the Irishman, forcing him to box for the second race in succession, and undoing his and the team’s hard work.

But resilience is another ‘buzz word’ for Taylor-Smith, and in the final race of the day, his fortunes improved. Again, the #40 car was among the quickest on track, with Taylor-Smith expertly picking his way through the traffic to rise from 23rd on the grid to an impressive 12th at the chequered flag.

That performance ended an otherwise character-building weekend on a high, and gives the team renewed focus ahead of the next three rounds at Brands Hatch on 10-11 May.

Aron Taylor-Smith (#40) said: “It’s a bit of a cliché in this championship that everybody has a bad weekend at some point, so hopefully we’ve now gotten ours out of the way!

“There is a little bit of frustration, because the car is genuinely in a much better place in terms of performance than we were able to showcase at Donington. We had a few mechanical gremlins – not the team’s fault, just bad luck – but otherwise I think we’d have been on for three decent points finishes.

“We won’t let our heads drop, though – it’s a long old season, there are 27 races to go and I’m enjoying being a part of this TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK family. For me, the focus is already firmly on bouncing back at Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks’ time and kicking on from there.

“A last and final thanks to everybody from my partner network who came down to support me at the weekend. It was great to feel that energy from everybody, and I’m looking forward to repaying it with a real show as the season goes on.”