Andrew Jordan gave the BTCC Hybrid Toyota Corolla a successful maiden race outing at Silverstone last weekend, as the car contested all official sessions of the race weekend.
Despite taking part in qualifying and the races, the weekend was not considered the full competitive début of the new-for-2022 car and system.
The car, featuring a 2022-spec TOCA engine developed by M-Sport, was entered by TOCA in conjunction with Speedworks Motorsport, Cosworth and M-Sport, with 2013 champion Jordan behind the wheel.
With the goal not being to set competitive lap times on Saturday, personnel instead focussed on carrying out system checks and obtaining mileage and setup information in the new car.
With a more competitive approach adopted for Sunday, after Jordan had started each race from the pitlane, the car achieved the third-fastest lap time in race one, before posting the best lap of all in race two.
Of that fastest lap in race two, the car, which is still not in its final specification, did so without topping the official speed trap figures, showing the car was being run without “artificially increasing its performance level above normal”.
In the final race the car retired after six laps due to a cracked weld on its exhaust manifold, unrelated to the hybrid system.
The M-Sport TOCA engine performed without fault during the weekend, other than the minor cracked weld in the exhaust manifold, which had nonetheless completed over two seasons’ worth of testing.
Next year, cars will utilise the hybrid power systems to deliver around a 10 % increase in power for a maximum of 15 seconds per lap.
“The fast laps the Hybrid car achieved – running on the exact same tyres as the rest of the grid, as well as a normal race setup – underlined the inherent performance of the car,” said BTCC Chief Executive Alan Gow.
“Nor was the Hybrid system merely ‘cranked up’ to achieve that performance – in fact, as the TSL timing data underlines, setting the fastest lap in race two was achieved despite it not even recording the fastest speed trap times in that race.
“So, we are all delighted with the way the Hybrid system ran during the Silverstone race weekend, as the car achieved everything we wanted it to.
“The main goal was to go through an entire race weekend sequence; putting the car, the system and our partners – Cosworth and M-Sport – through the ‘stress-test’ that a race weekend brings, as well as comparing the performance of the car, albeit at the very beginning of its competitive life cycle.
“Overall, it has been an extremely successful demonstration and we now continue to the next phase of the Hybrid project’s development cycle ahead of the full introduction for the 2022 season.”