So, there we are. The first racing action of the 2025 TCR UK season is done. A decent sized grid, some damn good racing, more than one standout performance, and guaranteed growth in the coming weeks. Those who nailed the sides of the coffin together for TCR UK 2025 found it empty when they went to place the lid on the casket, because the championship is far from dead. In fact, it’s dancing around like spring lambs and baby rabbits – well, maybe not, but a 16-car turnout was pretty damn good – and on point from the promise that Promoter Stewart Lines shared in January of having 15 cars for race one, and touching 20 for round two.

The new look TCR UK is a bit slick if we’re honest. Some of the baggage from previous years seems to have been dumped and a leaner and fitter championship has emerged. The off-season political wranglings are cast-off and forgotten, and now it’s back to what TCR UK should be doing – putting Touring Cars on track, delivering some decent racing, and having drivers create enough grief for us journalists to have something to write about – and for the opening weekend there were more than enough stories to get our fingers tapping away.

A table topping performance, the emergence of new talent, some solid drives and classy wins, and a few elbows out moments – that’s all we’ve really wanted since last season ended, but who were the winners, and who was the biggest loser?

SHEPHERDING THE FLOCK

The late confirmation that Adam Shepherd was re-joining the grid as a full season entry immediately placed him as the title favourite, and in qualifying he didn’t disappoint. For race one the win was almost a formality, but not quite: “It was a bit lively on the first few laps and I was thinking I’ll just hang on to it and it’ll settle itself down,” he said. “And then I hit some gravel at Redgate and had a big sideways moment and Callum closed up, then it settled down and pulled a two or three lengths gap.” All eyes were of course looking at his Cupra for signs of any carry over of reliability woes from last term. In the off-season Shepherd told Touring Car Magazine that the 2024 fuel problems could all be traced back to a degradation in the fuel bladder, and with a replacement installed there will be no repeat of the problems that cost him half-a-dozen race wins last year. Even if his first win wasn’t really as easy at it seemed, the second really would be a tougher call.

Second time out it was a case of going from tenth to first in 20 minutes. He started on the ‘wrong’ tyres, but finished on the ‘right’ ones. An immediate thought once the Cupra ‘turned on’ the pace as he passed Callum Newsham and Alistair Camp battling on the back straight was ‘will the Dan Lloyd record of eight wins in a season be destroyed before or after the summer break?’ Newsham last year put out to the world how much of a threat he is in wet or changeable conditions, and for much of the race – in both halves actually – he managed a pace that should have had him a little closer at the flag but Shepherd simply drifted through the field after passing the Hyundai racer with nine minutes on the clock. Another couple of moves past Will Beech and Greg Saunders and Shepherd found himself 12 seconds behind leader Steve Laidlaw with eight minutes to go, from there on it was a reeling in exercise – the move for the lead wasn’t broadcast with the coverage pissing around the midfield, when it was obvious Shepherd would grab the lead, before walking across the line with maximum points. But it was one hell of a considered and intelligent win. Pole, two wins and two fastest laps this far. The battle of wets v worn slicks went his way, partially thanks to some fatherly advice to cut warming the tyres on the cold part of the track. The bump steer induced turning of the Leon makes it hard to click those rears on a cold track, and all it was doing was cooling them further, he described the victory in those conditions as “sketchy.”

The salt in the pudding was race three. Nobody has taken three wins in a weekend in TCR UK. Okay, the format was only used once in 2023 – and six-times last year (where arguably Shepherd should have achieved that, not once, but twice – were it not for those fuel problems.) The possibility of it finally being pulled off slipped away on what appeared to be a spillage in the braking zone for McCleans on lap one. Newsham and Shepherd went side-by-side around half of the opening lap and the Cupra snapped into the gravel. No foul play was involved, but the saviour for Shepherd was the downfall of others. Sam Laidlaw spinning into the wall exiting the final chicane and Alistair Camp finding himself in a tyre barrier caused a red flag, and Shepherd caught the pack when the race went green again before racing up to third by the time the chequered flew.

Waxing lyrical about the performance of Shepherd is the thing right now. Nobody can win a title at the first round, we’ve seen dominant racers suddenly drop down the order, and it should be unrealistic to say there is one hand on the championship trophy already, but the rest of the grid – no matter how stoic their self-belief is – must be looking at the white and purple car and be wondering if there is any way to drop the fella on-track?

AND THEY CALLED MIKA HAKKINEN THE FLYING FINN?

Last season Alex Ley won in TCR Italy in a works Hyundai with the crack Target Competition team. This season Jenson Brickley is racing for Monlau in TCR Europe and Spain (sponsored by the foreign Scalextric) and both have made the step from Fiesta Jr to TCR UK to thank for it. Yes, we predicted that Finn Leslie would come out of the season with at least the same level of talent on display, but not many people thought that he’d end his first meeting second in the points, and with such a level-headed drive to a pair of fourth places, and a very fine second. For all the lauding of Shepherd we have to be honest here, anything less than what his performance was would have been a failure, and as such it’s impossible to argue against Leslie as being the driver of the weekend. The on-track battles were absolutely showing karting moves that flummoxed some of his rivals, and he appears to have a set of guts that scream ‘you ain’t intimidating me!’ At the same time there was also keep the head down and keep going attitude, an incredibly intelligent indicator. Ken Tyrell used to always tell his rookie drivers that getting to the finish on a debut was all that mattered, the old Froth Master would have approved, and just remember, when the other Flying ‘Finn’ Mika Hakkinen made his Touring Car debut – as a two-time F1 champion – he could only manage eighth.

LAIDLAWS DON’T LAY LOW

The two Cupra VZ machines are by far the sexiest (am I allowed to use that word in 2025?) bits of kit on the TCR grid at the moment. It’s great to see that they’re getting the treatment they deserve though – as in not just being something to lust over for aesthetic reasons. They are in the wars picking up podiums as any front running car should, with Steve and Sam coming away from the opening weekend having not just been in the thick of the action battering their way through the pack, but in the thick of the points action – being two points away from each other in third and fourth place. The Area Motorsport duo grabbed three podiums between them and didn’t finish lower than fifth. Both had a little chat with Brad Hutchison in race one – both being no more than Touring Car taps really. Steve put in a drive that was even better than his Thruxton win last year in coming from last to third in race one with some epic racing, while Sam fought off Hutch to grab second in the opener. Indeed, the learning curve is flattening at TCR level, and to look at where both drivers have come from considering they were not around TCR UK for the opening round last year says a lot. The speed and ability is there, but like Finn Leslie they are in a pack at the front where rivals have a few years of accumulated knowledge. While they are considered outsiders compared to Shepherd and Newsham in the title fight it’s hard to argue against more wins for Steve and the first couple for Sam being around the corner. The long lead in race three for Steve, while keeping his head when the fast lads on fast tyres arrived says a lot in itself – pick the points up, stay consistent, grab those wins, and you never know.

NOTHING NEW FOR NEWSHAM

A power steering rack failure. It looked like it was going to barbeque the front end of the Hyundai i10 when Callum Newsham dropped off the pace in race one. The smoke pouring out made it look like Snoop Dog and Willie Nelson were joining in for a ‘Bong Ride’ when he had to retire the car on Saturday afternoon. The fightback on Sunday though only left him a win away from matching the points total of championship leader Shepherd. In the damp race two it was a case of turning the car on at the halfway point when the lap times for wet and dry tyres overlapped then went in their favour. Newsham was caught out exiting McLeans as he chased Alistair Camp, with his i30 rival having to deke to avoid lapped traffic there was just enough of a slowing to allow Shepherd past into the lead to bugger off down the road for his second win – which looked easy, but you get the feeling that if Newsham had caught and passed Camp and the back markers elsewhere then Shepherd would have really had to fight to get by. The 5.87s difference at the end might have been not quite what it was – and undoubtedly Shepherd sees Newsham as a huge threat. His spin on lap one at McLeans on that damp stuff shows he meant to get ahead at the start, to try and pull away and try to crush the JHR driver, but could there be some psychological boosting for the Hyundai racer there? The on-form driver having to look at taking any opportunity instead of waiting to try for the lead? The answer has to be a yes, because the run to the flag for Newsham for his seventh TCR UK win was once again one – like last season – that shows he is rightfully in the top echelon, and is a reason why when the rest of us are crowning Shepherd as 2025 champion, the Cupra racer is looking at the red and white machine knowing that only a fool would discount what Newsham is putting out there.

GEN 1 JOLLYS

Elephant in the room – like last year there should be a bigger grid of Gen 1 cars. There are plenty of them around, and as shown last season there is no shame in putting out a car that can’t grab the overall win, but can be worthwhile in the class battle – although Cedric Bloch and George Jaxon might be giving Jeff Alden the evil eye right now after the former Clio Cup racer bagged a trio of wins for the older cars, and set off building a championship lead – which was a far cry from the intermittent Astra struggles of the last two seasons. And add in that it’s a car that hadn’t quite cut the mustard in its last couple of outings – but the Audi was on song for the start of this season. Alden fought hard among the newer cars, but a race three slugfest with Jaxon saw him only get the better of the former Porsche Sprint racer by 0.7 seconds by the flag. At points Cedric Bloch seemed like he’d be fastest, and Jaxon had moments hampered by a few tech gremlins, but 2025 does look like it’ll be a close battle for the Gen 1 crown.

WOE BETIDE THE NAME HUTCHISON

Last season at round one Brad Hutchison found himself on minus points, this weekend that sordid reality was repeated. It was a nightmare start to the campaign for the MPH Racing driver. Not quite on the pace in qualifying, two collisions and two chats with the stewards (including a written reprimand) in race one resulted in a chunk of damp grass covering the intakes and overheating the car, with a bolt shearing causing a failure ending race two early. Make hay while the sun shines, they say. The sun didn’t shine, and a race three puncture meant that the Bond-It racer left Donington Park with -1 in the points column. The place has been a nightmare for driver and team. In year one in TCR UK there was one of those moments where much of the internal engine components became external at the track and for the second Donny meeting of that year wheels didn’t turn. In 2023 a questionable DSQ from what should have been a first win hit Hutchison square on, now this disaster of a weekend? Is the place cursed? We’ll find out next time out when the squad has to face the place again, with a hope that the GP layout does not hold the same hate towards them as the National layout seems to have.

It’s a traditional two race weekend next time out supporting British GT. There are a few bits and pieces of repair work up and down the grid to be thrown together for the next outing, but 15 of those cars from the weekend will return, along with Ryan Bensley in his Lynk & Co. Don’t expect that to be the last addition to the grid though.