Aiden Moffat revelled in his return to the winners circle in the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park, as the Scot took victory on his first weekend in the Toyota.
Moffat, racing a Speedworks Motorsport-prepared Corolla, started on the back foot after a botched qualifying session which saw him fail to progress from his group in the first part of the rain-affected session.
From the penultimate row of the grid, the 27-year-old then made up nine places in a wet opening race to finish inside the top ten in ninth.
Slower progress in race two due to a brake issue saw the Scot gain only one place, but with the top nine reversed for the final race of the day, it gave Moffat a front-row starting position.
He duly cemented his earlier strong pace by fighting for victory throughout the race, despite being beaten away from the line, like stable-mate Rob Huff, by the BMW of Adam Morgan.
As Morgan fell back, Moffat took the fight to fellow Corolla racer Huff, and on lap ten he passed the 2012 World Champion for the lead.
Three laps of close side-by-side racing followed before Moffat broke clear, with BMW’s Colin Turkington by this stage his closest challenger.
Despite sustained late-race pressure from the four-time champion, Moffat prevailed to score just his fifth win in the BTCC and his first since 2021.
“The second I jumped in this car I felt great,” Moffat told TouringCars.Net. “It fills me with a lot of confidence – it’s like being back in the A Class in its prime. I’ve really enjoyed driving this car and there’s still so much more to explore.
“It’s a fantastic start, to win again this year. I told everyone that I was coming back this year to win races.
“After two bad years I wanted to prove to myself and everybody that I haven’t lost it, I’ve always been quick, and that some things just didn’t go right. So, to do it on the first weekend is a fantastic feeling.
“It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions. After qualifying going wrong, to bounce back and get the win it makes it so much sweeter.”
Moffat insists that his victory in the final encounter was not solely down to the benefit of the reverse grid, saying he feels he has plenty of genuine pace in the Toyota.
“It was genuine pace. Yesterday we had top five pace but qualifying went wrong. [In race one], we fought back to tenth from 18th. In the second race I had a brake issue and we managed to finish eighth, which is still not too far behind, so I would say that is genuine pace.
“The nature of that meant we got a reverse grid, but we fell back to third and were battling Colin, I had to pass Rob and then fight off Colin and Ash Sutton.
“I didn’t have to get too aggressive with it, as in over-defending, I was able to actually drive my own race.
“When you’ve not got the pace, you have to really park the person and over-defend, and we never had to do that, so I think that’s a sign that the pace is there.”