How Power Maxed Racing emerged from the ashes in the feelgood BTCC story of 2025

“Guess who just got back today, them wild-eyed boys that had been away.”

It had to be Thin Lizzy’s seminal hit from the long hot summer of 1976 that blared over the Knockhill PA as Power Maxed Racing’s Cupra Leons hit the track last Friday afternoon for a shakedown before the British Touring Car Championship round. The boys were, indeed, back in town. But the extraordinary thing was that, for all their wild eyes (lack of sleep), they hadn’t been away at all.

“But man, I still think them cats are crazy.”

Power Maxed team principal Adam Weaver described himself in similar(ish) terms to this writer at the beginning of the season, although it would have been a bit strange had the West Midlander used 1970s rock-’n’-roll terminology such as ‘them cats’. At that time, he was referencing his last-minute rebuild of the team from the metaphorical ashes of the mid-contract pullout of its title sponsor, and the securing of Motor Parts Direct to fill the breach. This time, the ashes were literal…

“I was getting a lot of telephone calls and messages saying there’s a fire near your work, and after I’d got two or three of these I thought I’d better jump in the car and go and have a look,” recounted Weaver to Louise Goodman on ITV4’s coverage. “But as I got closer and closer I could see that it was actually us that was on fire. That was pretty horrific to witness. To watch 20 years of our working life burn in 20 minutes was pretty painful to be honest.”

The team’s venerable Vauxhall Astras, still competitive enough to carry Mikey Doble to victory at Snetterton earlier this season, were gone as the fire took hold on the Saturday before the trip up to Knockhill. So were its TCR machines, its old touring cars, all the tools and equipment.

PMR team manager and technical boss Martin Broadhurst joined Weaver to watch the disaster unfold. And then, remarkably, they got on the phone to try to locate some ‘spare’ BTCC cars to use for the final four rounds of the season. One team, which shall remain nameless, wanted to charge an eye-watering sum of money for a car for Doble’s use.

The aftermath of Power Maxed Racing's premises destroyed by fire

Photo by: Adam Weaver / Power Maxed Racing

“Whenever there’s a disaster, some people say, ‘What can I do to help?’” Weaver muttered to Autosport last week. “Others say, ‘What can I do to help myself?’”

To the rescue came Un-Limited Motorsport, which, thanks to BTCC organiser TOCA’s flexibility, was able to pull its entry for a Cupra Leon raced hitherto in 2025 by Max Hall and Stephen Jelley; and Roddy Paterson, the father of Un-Limited’s underrated Scottish young gun Dexter who had acquired the Cupra campaigned in 2024 by Scott Sumpton with Restart Racing. Doble would drive the Hall/Jelley car; Nick Halstead the Sumpton machine.

The PMR crew headed up to Knockhill to prepare Doble’s weapon, and to Glasgow where Halstead’s was residing in a garage. And other figures in the BTCC rallied around. One was Restart. Its drivers Chris Smiley and Dan Lloyd are embroiled in a fight for the Independents’ crown with Doble, who was leading the points before Knockhill. And the team has close
connections with PMR anyway. Broadhurst moonlights with Restart on race weekends in a deal that brings cash into the coffers of PMR, which also preps Restart’s dampers, two sets of which were lost in the fire. “But that’s nothing compared to what Adam is facing,” pointed out Restart commercial boss Pete Jones.

"It looked like every single team, all their staff and lots of drivers were stood around to watch them go out on the track. They were playing The Boys Are Back In Town on the tannoy, and I had to tell a few people to go away and clear off because you’re going to make me cry" Adam Weaver

“I am a huge admirer of Adam and Mikey,” continued Jones. “And Adam has done his reputation huge harm for this week – he likes to be the angry bear but everybody loves him! Why wouldn’t you want to help him? We don’t want to win anything by default.” Restart offered upright tooling, gears, as well as spaces in its hospitality area (which were not taken up).

TOCA gave further dispensation to PMR by allowing the team to shakedown the Cupras after the support race test sessions had finished on Friday. No doubt three-time champion Gordon Shedden was looking on wistfully; the Knockhill business development director had, earlier in the week, left his desk by the start-finish straight to embark upon an 11-hour round trip to Toyota’s test track near Derby to shake down his own Speedworks Motorsport-run Corolla…

And, as the opening riff to the Thin Lizzy classic started, Weaver was trying hard to keep up that ‘angry bear’ facade. “That was the most emotional moment for me to be honest,” he related as he reflected upon the weekend. “It was emotional enough them actually going out, but when you had a look round, it looked like every single team, all their staff and lots of drivers were stood around to watch them go out on the track. They were playing The Boys Are Back In Town on the tannoy, and I had to tell a few people to go away and clear off because you’re going to make me cry.”

The team gained special dispensation to complete a shakedown at Knockhill on Friday - the most emotional moment of the ordeal for Weaver

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The crew were exhausted. Weaver had stayed behind, getting everything prepared for the weekend, and planning to fly up from Birmingham Airport on the Friday. But an EasyJet wing-tip collision that morning threw flights into chaos and, by the time the Cupras emerged from the awning for shakedown, the boss had just arrived from a five-hour car journey after abandoning his plans to fly. That night, number one mechanic Charlie Broughton and her colleagues collapsed into bed at 2.15am, with alarms set for before 6am.

And the following day, Doble rewarded them. Remarkably, on his first day in the right-hand-drive Cupra (the burnt Vauxhalls were among the few NGTC cars to be left-hookers), he fell just 0.032 seconds short of making it to Q2, almost 0.2s quicker than Patterson had gone in the other Q1 split. Impressive stuff.

And if the boys wanna fight, you better let ’em.

That seemed to light something up in Patterson, whose family had been so generous in coming to the rescue of the PMR cause. He managed to beat Doble in each race. “I can assure you that Mikey was driving his bloody arse off to try and get past him, and he was working harder than he’s probably ever worked,” reckoned Weaver.

Doble’s results of 17th, 18th and 15th weren’t aided by an unusually attrition-free Knockhill weekend. But while that netted him just one point in the overall championship, he did claim
a trio of fourth places in the Independents’ division. He has slipped to second in the class standings, but is just 13 points behind Smiley, 12 ahead of Lloyd and 32 clear of Patterson with the final three rounds at Donington Park, Silverstone and Brands Hatch to come.

What now? PMR has the loan of the Cupras until the end of the season but, as Weaver explains: “Those cars certainly aren’t Power Maxed Racing cars, but we’re going to do our best within the time constraints and the tool constraints that we’ve got. I sorted a unit out literally yesterday afternoon, and the guys were putting the cars in there this morning. They’re unloaded and they’re starting to be stripped and worked on. We’ll do what we can.”

One point for Doble might have been slim rewards for the team's effort, but just competing at Knockhill was a heroic triumph

Photo by: JEP

And beyond? “I’ll build whatever I’m asked. If a manufacturer wants to step up and join in with the generosity of all the other people and provide us with some shells, then I’ll turn them into touring cars.”

Back to Weaver’s chat with Goodman, where he outlined how motorsport comes together in times of crisis. Yes, it’s fiercely competitive and the participants will try anything to gain an upper hand, but beyond that there’s a brotherhood – and this meant the BTCC shone very brightly this weekend. “In some ways we’ve probably had the worst week of our life and the best week of our life,” he mused. “We’ve gone from a catastrophic fire to seeing the best in humanity really.”

Spread the word around. Guess who’s back in town.

Power Maxed Racing will be able to see out the season with its loaned Cupras

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images