Ricky Collard will return to the British Touring Car Championship in 2022 as the 25-year-old takes on his first full season with Toyota Gazoo Racing UK.
Collard, who will team up with Rory Butcher at the Speedworks-run outfit, follows in the footsteps of his father Rob, who was a mainstay in the championship between 2000 and 2019.
Collard made his BTCC début back in 2018, when he was a stand-in for his father after he suffered from a concussion at the Snetterton round of the championship.
Then racing a BMW, Collard picked up a best finish of third at Silverstone in only his third meeting in the championship.
Since then, Collard has focussed on predominantly GT racing, competing in the Blancpain GT World Challenge in 2019, which was his last full season of racing, in an Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3, picking up a victory at the Nürburgring.
Prior to his GT and touring car racing, Collard was the closest challenger to Lando Norris in the BTCC-supporting 2015 MSA formula Championship, picking up six wins, before he went on to compete in BRDC British Formula 3 in 2016, where he was again runner-up, scoring five wins.
After a lean couple of years of racing, Collard had been planning to move to Australia at the end of 2022 – which he says he has now put on hold thanks to his BTCC opportunity with Toyota.
“I’ve been knocking around the BTCC paddock since I was just three-years-old, standing at the side of the track watching my dad compete against the likes of Jason Plato, Colin Turkington and Gordon Shedden – so as a series, it has huge personal appeal to me and I’ve made no secret recently of my desire to return,” said Collard.
“It definitely feels like I have some unfinished business after dipping my toe into the water at the end of 2018, and with my dad no longer racing, it’s almost like I’m now picking up the reins and carrying on the family legacy.
“Following a comparatively quiet past couple of years, I was actually planning to stop racing at the end of 2022 to move to Australia – I had my visa organised and everything!
“While I still had some good options in GTs, my interest was waning – but this opportunity has really reignited the spark and I intend to grab it with both hands, fully embrace it and enjoy it.
“I haven’t done a complete season of racing in the UK since my days in British F3, so I’m massively excited for this – really buzzing!
“Last week’s test at Donington was the first time I’d ever driven a front wheel-drive race car, and while we’re clearly not yet where we want to be, my lap times showed that I already feel pretty comfortable in the Toyota.
“The Corolla is a proven race-winning package, and everybody in the team is doing all they can to help me to get quickly up-to-speed. I’m getting faster with every lap, and that progression is only going to continue.
“As a former racing driver himself, Christian [Dick] can properly relate to the feedback I’m providing, and Rory has been really helpful too.
“We had a good relationship even beforehand, and I honestly couldn’t ask for a better team-mate. He has a lot of experience that I can draw upon and learn from, and by working closely together, the aim is to drive the whole team forward.
“There’s a lot of support and love for Toyota amongst BTCC fans, and I can’t wait to meet all the guys and girls at Toyota UK and hopefully do them proud.
“It’s funny – the only type of car I’ve raced that I haven’t won in is a touring car, so I’m pretty keen to put that statistic to bed and I’ll have 30 chances this year to do so.
“Despite effectively being a rookie, I’ll be disappointed if I don’t achieve that, and I’m targeting podiums at the very least. I’m certainly going to give this my absolute best shot!”
Team Principal Christian Dick explained that following recent testing outings at Donington Park and Knockhill, the team were keen to finally confirm Collard as it’s second driver for 2022.
“We’re delighted to confirm Ricky alongside Rory in our 2022 line-up,” said Dick. “We ran a series of evaluation tests with him over the last week, and by the end, both parties were very keen to sign on the dotted line.
“He has slotted into the team seamlessly, and having grown up around the BTCC, he knows the championship inside-out so there should be no acclimatisation required from that point-of-view.
“It was evident watching Ricky as he rose through the ranks that he is a driver of considerable talent and potential, and his performances during his short previous stint in the BTCC in 2018 really turned some heads.
“It takes a fair degree of skill to qualify on the front row of the grid and finish on the podium in this series – and to do so with only two prior race weekends under his belt was a seriously impressive accomplishment.
“His pace in the Corolla these past few days has also been extremely encouraging, and we’re confident that the combination of Ricky’s raw speed and Rory’s well-honed racecraft and experience will stand us in very good stead over the coming season.
“One other thing to mention is that with the transition to hybrid power, everybody is starting from scratch to a certain extent as we all get to grips with this new technology, so Ricky’s lack of recent BTCC seat time won’t penalise him as much as it might otherwise have done.
“In any case, he has already shown during testing that he is an excellent listener and a very fast learner. I don’t think it will be long at all before he’s right on the money and challenging up at the front of the field.”