High drama, thrilling wheel-to-wheel action and the crowning of multiple champions was the narrative of the British Automobile Racing Club’s penultimate event of the season at Brands Hatch this past weekend (November 1/2).
Taking centre stage in front of a sellout crowd at the Kent venue, fireworks were advertised for the Sunday evening however plenty of sparks flew before as six categories closed out their 2025 campaigns on the Indy circuit.
The British Truck Racing Championship was the undoubted headline act of the weekend and the heavyweight behemoths delivered a spectacular finale that culminated in Ryan Smith and Jake Evans savouring title glory.
In Division 1, Smith entered the finale as the driver to beat and he duly lived up to all expectations as he kept his nose clean and did what was required to clinch a historic tenth consecutive title in the series’ premier class.
At the wheel of his Daimler Freightliner, the Mansfield racer finished second to David Jenkins and Nathan Smith in the opening two bouts before he wrapped things up in style with a race to spare by claiming a commanding victory.
Things proved to be far more dramatic over in Division 2. Jake Evans and Callum Eason went into the final meeting tied on points but as the weekend progressed, Eason outscored Evans in each of the first three races to go into the finale with an eight-point buffer.
On lap two, the pair clashed at Clearways which left Evans needing to be recovered from the gravel and Eason forced to enter the pit lane to fit a new rear bumper bar. Both would feature during the restart and take the chequered flag, however the drama didn’t end there.
Officials would later deem that Eason had not completed the required 80% race distance to be classified. That subsequently meant he scored no points and Evans was therefore declared the champion.
Elsewhere, the TCR UK Championship went down to the wire with Adam Shepherd finally clinching the coveted crown. After enduring a number of near misses in recent years, the Cupra Leon VZ TCR driver did enough to secure the bragging rights for 2025.
Shepherd entered the weekend with a commanding lead in the points and he put himself within touching distance of the crown in the weekend’s opening bout as he clinched a crushing lights-to-flag victory.
Needing to just pick up a handful of points in race two, Shepherd did just that as his main rival, Callum Newsham, delivered an incredible drive to go from ninth to first on the opening lap – and then ultimately onto victory.
Just a handful of points was the difference when it came to the destiny of the Junior Saloon Car Championship title. Oliver Kerr and Josh Selvadorai headed to Brands Hatch being separated by the smallest of margins, a theme that would continue right the way until the bitter end.
With double points on offer, Kerr struck first as he beat Selvadorai to victory in race one before then out-scoring him again in race two, this time finishing second to impressive teenage talent Wilf Butler.
Butler would double up and win the finale but it was the battle for second place that had people focused on. Kerr and Selvadorai ran line astern throughout the contest, with Kerr having just enough in hand to finish ahead of him and with it, snare title glory.
Over in the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy, Alex Keens capped off an impressive campaign to be crowned champion. The Graves Motorsport driver had been the cream of the crop for much of the year and victory in race two at Brands Hatch sealed the deal with a race to spare.
The other two race wins went the way of Westbourne Motorsport’s Rhys Hurd. Arguably the driver to beat over the final two events, Hurd was dominant in races one and three to secure runner-up laurels to Keens.
In the Milltek Civic Cup, Liam McGill kept his cool to bring home the single-marque crown for the first time. McGill and Alistair Camp entered the weekend in contention but victory in the opening bout for McGill put him on the cusp of championship superstardom. Managing to outscore Camp in an action-packed finale, McGill was declared the champion.
Closing out the weekend’s entertainment were two races from the popular Track Action Racing Club, which were won by William Di Claudio in his Peugeot 106 GTI and former Classic Touring Car Racing Club title winner Gary Prebble in his Honda Civic.
To view the full classification of results from all sessions at Brands Hatch, CLICK HERE.
You can also watch all of the action back via the British Automobile Racing Club YouTube channel HERE.
