Jake Hill will return with the Mark Blundell owned MB Motorsport to West Surrey Racing to defend his 2024 BTCC title. The Kent racer had spoken in the wake of his crowning at Brands Hatch last month of his hope to have all the pieces to come together to allow him the opportunity to remain with the squad and challenge for a consecutive championship.

Over the last three seasons Hill has claimed 17 victories in the BMW 330e M Sport – a chassis that is currently the third most successful car of the NGTC era – and is happy for the chance to add to that total.

“To put it simply, there was nowhere else I wanted to be in 2025 than to be lining up on the grid once again for Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport in a WSR-run BMW,” he was quoted in a WSR press release.

The off-season roundabout has yet to place any other driver solidly in the other available seats, with Marcus Simmons of Autosport reporting that several drivers are in consideration for drives with the outfit, reporting that one in contention is Aiden Moffat.

In mid-October MB Partners, a second company owned by Blundell, signed a partnership with LKQ Euro Car Parts, a sponsor seen on the car of Aiden Moffat with One Motorsport and Speedworks over the last two seasons. That has led to speculation that Moffat, or teammate for 2023 and 24 Josh Cook, could make the switch to WSR, with the tie-up morphing into car sponsorship.

Moffat in a rear-wheel-drive car is one that is seen as making sense. His Laser Tools team switch to the Infiniti Q50 in mid-2019 had Moffat telling TC Mag at the time that he was immediately comfortable with the car. Two years with Ash Sutton as teammate culminated with Moffat scoring his only top 10 championship finish in the RWD machine in 2021. His 2022 campaign in the same car saw his worst BTCC finish in the standings – as the squad had possibly the worst reliability woes on the grid with the new for 2022 hybrid.

The rumours almost certainly spell an end for Moffat at Toyota who, according to those in attendance, recently tested Ronan Pearson in a two-car day along with Rob Huff, between his TCR World Tour end of season excursions.

At WSR one of the other contenders is Adam Morgan. At Brands Hatch Morgan told TC mag that he wanted to stay with the team, but his budget and what the team were needing were not aligning. With the reported two-year deal that Morgan had – including the pair of former Ciceley BMW machines that came with him to WSR going back to the Sudbury team on a permanent basis – now over, it is believed to be a pure cash deal to retain his seat.

In other news Excelr8, after their winter livery reveal, completed a few days of testing with Tom Ingram and Tom Chilton at Anglesey, while former Laser Tools and Team HARD driver Dexter Patterson tested with Un-Limited Motorsport.