BTCC Thruxton: Proctor substitutes for unwell Osborne, Smiley tops practice

Double British Touring Car Championship race winner Senna Proctor has been called up to replace Sam Osborne for the series’ fifth round at Thruxton.

Osborne felt unwell on Friday, and was referred to the local hospital for blood tests. Although these came back all clear, he has remained below par on Saturday morning so has relinquished the seat of his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium for the weekend.

Proctor, who was taken on by Alliance in a reserve role for the 2026 season, is therefore on board for Thruxton only. He spent much of the elongated 50-minute free practice session in the top 10 in the times, before slipping back to an eventual 14th position.

The Yorkshireman’s presence is the latest of a merry-go-round of changes in the BTCC’s runners and riders.

Ryan Bensley, who contested a one-off round in 2025 with an Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai, has replaced Max Buxton in the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport stable. The sometime TCR UK frontrunner finished a highly respectable 17th of the 22 runners in free practice.

GB3 convert Lewis Gilbert has switched to the BTCC for the remainder of the season with the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport team, and the Scot ended up 21st in the running order.

Senna Proctor, NAPA Racing UK

Photo by: JEP

Fastest was the Restart Racing Hyundai i30 N Fastback of Chris Smiley, leading a 1-2 for the Independent team from stablemate James Dorlin.

Championship leader Ash Sutton was at the top of the times on hard-compound Goodyear tyres with 10 minutes remaining, before Smiley had a set of mediums fitted and eclipsed the Alliance Ford star’s time.

Smiley then went quicker still on his next lap, while Dorlin – also on mediums – improved to finish up just 0.093 seconds adrift of the Northern Irishman.

The high-speed, abrasive Thruxton is usually a hard-tyres-only venue, but the BTCC has introduced the medium for qualifying only this weekend.

Sutton, who was the best part of 0.4s behind Smiley, was the fastest of the runners on hard tyres in third place.

Fourth was Mikey Doble with the lead Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon, with the Speedworks-run Toyotas of Josh Cook and Aron Taylor-Smith next.

Dan Cammish was on a hot lap that should have put him in the same ballpark as team-mate Sutton when he went too fast into the chicane. He ended up seventh in front of Tom Ingram (Excelr8 Hyundai), Adam Morgan (Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon) and Gordon Shedden (Speedworks Toyota).

ITV

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

BTCC extends live deal with ITV

BTCC organiser TOCA has extended its deal with ITV to show live, free-to-air coverage of the series until the end of the 2029 season.

It means the series will continue to be shown on ITV4, as well as the ITVX streaming service.

“This new contract underlines my unwavering commitment to continue to keep the BTCC as freely accessible to as many people as possible rather than for it to be hidden behind a paywall,” said TOCA supremo Alan Gow.

“My policy has always been for the BTCC to have the widest reach achievable, and our long relationship with ITV makes that happen.

“In fact, the BTCC is the only UK motorsport that has live, free-to-air coverage of an entire championship on mainstream linear television and, thanks to our great partners at ITV, long may that continue.”

BTCC Thruxton - Free practice results

FiP

All Stats

 

Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	C. Smiley Restart Racing	22		Hyundai i30N	22	1'15.365		112.540
2	J. Dorlin Restart Racing	132		Hyundai i30N	20	+0.093 1'15.458	0.093	112.402
3	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK	116		Ford Focus Titanium	22	+0.359 1'15.724	0.266	112.007
4	M. Doble LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	88		Audi A3 Saloon	21	+0.512 1'15.877	0.153	111.781
5	J. Cook Speedworks Corolla Racing	66		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	22	+0.525 1'15.890	0.013	111.762
6	A. Taylor-Smith Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	50		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	20	+0.533 1'15.898	0.008	111.750
7	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK	27		Ford Focus Titanium	21	+0.535 1'15.900	0.002	111.747
8	T. Ingram Team Vertu	80		Hyundai i30N	16	+0.547 1'15.912	0.012	111.729
9	A. Morgan Cataclean Plato Racing	33		Mercedes A35 Saloon	20	+0.706 1'16.071	0.159	111.496
10	G. Shedden Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	52		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	+0.755 1'16.120	0.049	111.424
11	D. Rowbottom Cataclean Plato Racing	32		Mercedes A35 Saloon	21	+0.783 1'16.148	0.028	111.383
12	R. Collard Team Vertu	11		Hyundai i30N	22	+0.808 1'16.173	0.025	111.347
13	C. Rainford West Surrey Racing	99		BMW 330i M Sport	24	+0.928 1'16.293	0.120	111.171
14	S. Proctor NAPA Racing UK	18		Ford Focus Titanium	23	+0.992 1'16.357	0.064	111.078
15	T. Chilton Team Vertu	3		Hyundai i30N	20	+1.082 1'16.447	0.090	110.947
16	D. De Leon West Surrey Racing	2		BMW 330i M Sport	20	+1.146 1'16.511	0.064	110.855
17	R. Bensley Speedworks Corolla Racing	7		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	25	+1.254 1'16.619	0.108	110.698
18	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	16		Audi A3 Saloon	18	+1.461 1'16.826	0.207	110.400
19	L. Selby NAPA Racing UK	15		Ford Focus Titanium	25	+1.663 1'17.028	0.202	110.111
20	D. Patterson Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing	17		Audi A3 Saloon	21	+1.926 1'17.291	0.263	109.736
21	L. Gilbert West Surrey Racing	29		BMW 330i M Sport	21	+2.254 1'17.619	0.328	109.272
22	N. Hamilton Team Vertu	28		Hyundai i30N	25	+2.591 1'17.956	0.337	108.800
View full results