Two Wins, a JCW Title by a Point and a Farewell in the Gravel: EXCELR8's Brands Hatch Finale

Two wins for Tom Ingram, second in the championship locked up, Tom Ovenden crowned MINI CHALLENGE JCW champion by a single point after a stewards' enquiry into a hand gesture that turned out to be a wave, Ricky Collard back in the car and first across the line in the last race of the year, and then the sort of ending nobody writes. Ingram and Tom Chilton in the Paddock Hill gravel before the first corner of the final race of the season, Chilton's last BTCC start over in a few hundred yards, Ingram's stationary car then hit head on by Nick Halstead and the outgoing champion off to hospital for a CT scan, and Collard's maiden win taken away by a five second penalty an hour later. If you ever need to explain to a sponsor why this championship is the most watched motorsport in Britain, send them the Sunday from Brands Hatch.

Brands Hatch's Grand Prix circuit hosted Rounds 28, 29 and 30 of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship and Rounds 18, 19 and 20 of the Power Maxed MINI CHALLENGE JCW on 10 and 11 October, the final weekend of the 2026 season.

Ingram does the double

Ingram qualified fifth and got the Team VERTU Hyundai up to second in the Saturday qualifying race, half a second behind Aiden Moffat and never more than a second off him, with a move up the inside of team mate Collard at Dingle Dell along the way. On Sunday he put the soft tyre on for Race 1, took the lead from Moffat at the start, lost it when the Audi used its extra boost, and then on lap 11 produced the move of the weekend to go back past. Moffat's track limits penalty made the last few laps easier than they looked, but the win was Ingram's on merit, the first time all year he had been allowed to keep one without a steward getting involved.

Race 2 was simpler. Pole, the medium tyre as the regulations demand, and a lights to flag win by six tenths from Josh Cook with Ash Sutton third. That sealed second in the Drivers' Championship behind Sutton, and for a reigning champion who lost two wins at the opening round and spent the middle of the season fighting the car as much as the field, it was a proper way to sign off the title defence.

The last race, and the last race

Then Race 3. Sam Osborne, also on his final BTCC weekend, got squeezed between the two Hyundais on the run down to Paddock Hill Bend, bounced off Ingram and into Chilton, and both Team VERTU cars went into the gravel, Ingram backwards into the barrier at speed. That would have been bad enough, but with the field still streaming off the line Nick Halstead's Audi arrived and hit Ingram's stationary car head on. Halstead was out on the spot, Ingram and Chilton were taken to the medical centre, and Ingram went on to hospital for a CT scan, mildly hurt and thankfully nothing worse. It was the heaviest moment of the season and the one everyone in the garage will remember longest.

Chilton, who had announced this would be the final start of a BTCC career that runs to 562 races, climbed out and took a bow to the crowd from the gravel trap, which is about as Tom Chilton as it is possible to be. He had been open all season about how exhausting the job had become. He deserved a cleaner goodbye than that, but he got the ovation, and that is the bit that lasts.

Collard's return

Ricky Collard was back in the number 11 after sitting out Silverstone, and he picked up where his part season left off, fourth in qualifying, fifth in the qualifying race, and third in Race 1 by less than a tenth once Moffat's penalty was applied. He then survived two safety car periods and a late charge from the two NAPA Fords to cross the line first in Race 3, which should have been his first BTCC win. A post race penalty for a safety car procedure infringement dropped him to eighth and handed the win to Dan Cammish. He has said publicly he is working with the team to be back in the seat for 2027, and on the strength of that race, and the podiums he has stacked up on a part programme, he has made the case about as well as it can be made.

Nic Hamilton finished 20th, 21st, and 16th across the three races, keeping it clean on a weekend when a lot of people did not.

Ovenden takes the JCW title by one point

While all that was going on, the EXCELR8 Driver Development Programme was winning a championship. Tom Ovenden went into the Brands Hatch JCW finale in a straight fight with Max Edmundson of Pro Alloys, and the three races could not have been tighter. Nathan Edwards won the opener for the DDP with Ovenden fifth, Ovenden then won Race 2 from Josh Porter for a DDP one two with Edmundson third, and Edmundson won the finale with Ovenden seventh. Add it all up and Ovenden finished on 788 points to Edmundson's 787. One point, over twenty races.

It was not quite done at the flag either. The stewards opened an investigation into a hand gesture Ovenden was seen making from the cockpit, and for a nervous spell the title hung on what they made of it. The conclusion was that he was waving. Championship confirmed, and a good reminder that in a one point title fight even a friendly hand out of the window will get looked at. Edwards finished fourth in the standings and Porter eighth, with Olivier Algieri runner up in the Rookie Cup, so the programme that exists to develop the next generation of EXCELR8 drivers has a champion and a depth of results behind him.

So that is 2026. Ingram second in the championship with the pace of a champion and the luck of someone else entirely, Chilton retired, Collard knocking on the door, a JCW title in the cabinet by the narrowest margin going, and a team that will spend the winter working out how to turn a season this eventful into one that ends with the big trophy.

Follow the team at excelr8motorsport.com.

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Race results sourced from the official BTCC timing partner, TSL Timing, and the official BTCC website.