Consistency continues for Aron Taylor-Smith with points brace at Knockhill

Aron Taylor-Smith continued his consistent form in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship with another brace of points finishes at Knockhill this weekend [16-17 August].

The UK’s premier motorsport series made its annual trip north of the Scottish border to the 1.3-mile Fife circuit, with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK ace Taylor-Smith keen to build on two top-ten showings at Croft last time out, particularly in light of further developments made to the #40 Toyota Corolla GR Sport between rounds thanks to the tireless efforts of Speedworks Motorsport.

And the latest raft of improvements looked to have paid dividends on Saturday, as Taylor-Smith put in his strongest practice showing of the season to-date – fourth in FP1, then second in FP2 – before going on to equal his season-best starting position of seventh in an ultra-competitive qualifying session, and narrowly missing out on the Quick Six shootout for pole position.

The Irishman opted to brave the pain of the slower, less favoured Medium compound Goodyear tyre in the opening race and subsequently fought valiantly against cars on quicker rubber to secure ninth spot in an action-packed opening race, with the 35-year-old capturing the lion’s share of the attention from ITV’s television cameras with some spirited defending.

The objective for Race 2 was simple; to finish inside the top-twelve and make the reverse-grid draw, in the hopes of benefitting and moving up the order for the final race of the day.

Taylor-Smith duly delivered despite being hampered by an overheating engine in the sweltering ambient temperatures. He registered more points in P11 but, on this occasion, Lady Luck subsequently deserted the four-time race-winner, and he would remain on the sixth row for Race 3.

Despite a solid start to the final contest, Taylor-Smith was forced to pit shortly after with an issue and retire prematurely but still ends the triple-header in Fife as TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK’s highest scorer for the event.

The 2025 BTCC season returns to Donington Park for the next three rounds on 30-31 August, making use of the Grand Prix circuit configuration.

Aron Taylor-Smith (#40) said:

“Ultimately, this weekend is one of those “what could have been” scenarios, but we’ve still managed to come away with two points finishes and some positives to concentrate on regardless, particularly being the highest-placed Toyota driver in the field.

“Genuinely, it felt yesterday like our hard work since Croft had really paid off, the car was in a much stronger place, in terms of performance, and we probably left a bit of time on the table in qualifying – so to still be seventh, despite that, shows we’ve made a step forward.

“But in race trim today, we just couldn’t capitalise on that. We expected some pain on the medium tyres in Race 1, to give us the benefit of the soft tyres in Races 2 & 3 – but, obviously, that strategy only works if our reliability is equally as strong.

“We’re disappointed it isn’t more, but I’m not known for getting downbeat, so we’ll go away and analyse it, work through what we can and then look to come back stronger at Donington in a couple of weeks’ time.”