Our Diagonal Comms team is heading to Thruxton Circuit, the fastest 2.36 miles (3.79 kilometres) in the United Kingdom, to deliver a comprehensive comms, PR, and content creation package to our client, the British Touring Car Championship, this weekend. NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton leads the points standings having opened his campaign with back-to-back victories and a further four podium finishes, but the 2017, 2020, 2021, and 2023 champion has things far from his own way. This is how our team is storytelling a record-breaking start to the BTCC season.
Unpredictability has characterised the opening three meetings of the season with a record-breaking eight different drivers climbing to the top step of the podium in the first nine races – well on the way to beating the 2018 record of 17 different winners in 30 races. Sutton, Tom Chilton, Jake Hill, Daryl DeLeon, Charles Rainford, Dan Cammish, Dan Rowbottom and Mikey Doble have all entered the BTCC winners’ circle, three of whom for the first time in their careers.
That total is only predicted to grow as the action continues: the driver second in the championship, Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram, is surprisingly yet to win in 2025, while his teammate Adam Morgan is revelling in a return to form having reunited with front-wheel-drive machinery this year. Meanwhile, Josh Cook of One Motorsport has enjoyed half of his 20 career triumphs at Thruxton, positioning him as a favourite to throw his hat into the ring this weekend.
It’s Team VERTU who sit atop the Teams’ Championship with NAPA Racing UK in hot pursuit. The Hyundai i30 Ns and Ford Focus STs of the field have, at large, been the dominant force this year, aside notably from Rounds 4, 5, and 6 at Brands Hatch Indy, where West Surrey Racing executed a mighty clean sweep by winning all three races with Rainford, DeLeon and reigning champion Hill. Just 13 points split Team VERTU and NAPA Racing UK, while in the Manufacturers’ Championship, Hyundai leads Ford by only six.
Our team has been hard at work ensuring the UK’s premier motorsport series receives maximum attention in mainstream and social media amidst a record-breaking start to the season.
At Brands Hatch in May, Diagonal organised, hosted, and oversaw a special activation involving a selection of journalists from five high-profile motorsport and automotive news outlets: Autosport, Autocar, CAR Magazine, Magneto, and Octane. But before the serious work began, the journalists hit the track; 17-time race-winner Chilton took them for an exhilarating ride around the rollercoaster Brands Hatch Indy circuit in one of Motorsport Vision’s (MSV) electric-powered Hyundai IONIQ 5 N Safety Cars, which brought some extra thrill to the afternoon.
We subsequently gathered five of the BTCC’s stars – Sutton, Rowbottom, Ingram, Chilton, and returning champion Gordon ‘Flash’ Shedden – to take part in exclusive roundtable interviews that promised full access and unique insight. The session resulted in a swathe of media coverage, ensuring the BTCC remained front of mind following its thrilling opening round.
With record-breaking levels of competition, our team is as keen as ever to ensure the ‘people’s championship’ is open to all, and that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are at the core of its operation.
This weekend, following a special activation that saw a group of young patients and carers from the Renaissance Foundation enjoy a behind-the-scenes view of the 2024 season finale, our team will be supporting BTCC title sponsor Kwik Fit as they host a group of primary school children at Thruxton as part of their Kids in Motorsport initiative. The children will enjoy a selection of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) activities, meet members of the paddock – including drivers, engineers, and TV presenters – and enjoy an exclusive look into the inner workings of an active motor racing paddock. Be sure to keep a close eye on the BTCC’s social media channels over the coming days to see what they get up to.
Our team has been focused on diversifying the BTCC’s digital output to further connect the series with its dedicated fanbase in recent months – a strategy that has been spearheaded by a particular emphasis on the BTCC YouTube channel – where we have been distributing exclusive long-form content. At Snetterton, our team dusted the cobwebs off of a PlayStation 2, booted up the iconic TOCA Race Driver game, and handed Doble and Rowbottom a controller each; the pair went head-to-head on the virtual track and in a round of BTCC trivia, kicking off the competitive action before they hit the road in their modern machines. They went on to score a victory each at the Norfolk circuit following our filming, so we must be a good omen… You can catch the full video below.
If the first three meetings of the season are anything to go by, then the next three rounds of the season are set to be absolute barnstormers. If you are in the UK, make sure you catch all of the action on ITV4, the RACER network if you are in North America, or the BTCC YouTube channel if you are anywhere else in the world this Sunday.