Ronan Pearson clinches maiden win in Brands Hatch finale

Ronan Pearson led an EXCELR8 Motorsport 1-2 in the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Brands Hatch, having decisively retaken the lead on the opening lap.

Pearson had been drawn to start from pole after the top 11 were reversed in the race two result, and the Scot had Power Maxed Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith alongside him on the front row of the grid.

When the lights went out, it was Irishman Taylor-Smith who made the better start, assuming the lead into Paddock Hill bend.

But Pearson retook the lead further around the lap at Clearways, making a strong late lunge on the Vauxhall.

Pearson then extended his lead over Taylor-Smith over the remainder of the race, getting his advantage up to as much as 3.5 seconds, on his way to a maiden win in his 36^th BTCC start.

Whilst Taylor-Smith held second for over half the race, he lost out to a very late lunge from EXCELR8’s Tom Chilton four laps from the finish, with the Hyundai racer almost getting sideways as he took the position with light contact at Paddock Hill.

The result was only EXCELR8’s second 1-2 finish, the previous one coming at Croft in 2022.

NAPA Racing UK’s Ashley Sutton completed the podium, maintaining his 100% rostrum record in 2024, having followed past Taylor-Smith at Druids immediately after Chilton’s move.

Chilton and Sutton were aided when Speedworks Motorsport’s Aiden Moffat retired with a loss of power after 11 laps, the Toyota racer having been running in the final podium position until that point.

Taylor-Smith thus took the chequered flag in fourth, despite trying to take the fight back to former team-mate Sutton, ahead of NAPA’s Dan Cammish in fifth.

Daniel Rowbottom followed his team-mate home in sixth, with Toyota’s Andrew Watson fighting from 15^th on the grid to seventh.

EXCELR8’s Tom Ingram was running in eighth when he suffered from a front-left puncture with his soft tyre, being forced to pit and then circulating a lap down and out of contention, although the 2022 champion did salvage a solitary point for the fastest lap of the race.

Colin Turkington was the leading BMW in eighth, with the top ten completed by Toyota’s Rob Huff and BMW’s Adam Morgan.

The leading LKQ-backed Toyota of Josh Cook was 11^th, ahead of Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill in 12^th, the latter having struggled to make much on-track progress in his BMW.

Despite starting from third on the grid, Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble slipped down the order in the latter stages, ultimately bringing his Vauxhall home in 16^th and out of the points after losing out to Restart Racing’s Scott Sumpton on the final lap.

Thanks to his consistency, Sutton leads the drivers’ championship standings with 95 points, despite having yet to win a race in 2024. Turkington is second (93 points) ahead of Ingram in third (85 points).

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	14	M		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	24	19:46.603	48.408	1
2	3	M		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	24	3.655	48.643	6
3	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	4.479	48.553	9
4	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	4.679	48.727	2
5	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	5.748	48.858	5
6	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	8.077	49.020	7
7	11	M		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	13.216	49.072	15
8	20	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	24	13.552	49.288	11
9	12	M		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	14.500	49.109	18
10	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	24	15.344	49.223	8
11	66	M		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	15.580	48.570	16
12	24	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	24	16.747	48.951	19
13	222	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	24	19.157	48.842	17
14	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	24	21.741	49.171	12
15	29	I		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	24	22.051	49.235	20
16	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	24	22.366	48.992	3
17	22	M		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	24	42.023	49.602	13
18	80	M		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	23	+ 1 LAP	48.325	10
19	18	I		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	21	+ 3 LAPS	48.964	14
R	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	11	DNF	48.888	4