The 2025 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship arrived in Kent for the final weekend of the season, as Rounds 28, 29, and 30 took place at Brands Hatch.
With this highly competitive series reaching its conclusion, racing took place on the 2.43-mile GP circuit.
The weekend began with Sam Osborne occupying seventeenth place in the BTCC Drivers’ Championship table with 96 points. Meanwhile, he remained in a solid third place in the Jack Sears Trophy table with 369 points.
There were a few spots of rain in the air during Saturday’s qualifying session, which saw Sam put his number 77 Ford Focus ST on the ninth row of the grid in 18th place.
RACE 1 (15 Laps)
Fresh from his recent BTCC win last time out at Silverstone, Sam started the first race of this weekend on the medium tyre compound and had the full quota of eight laps worth of boost at his disposal.
Eighteenth immediately became 17th, after pole-sitter Daryl DeLeon pulled into pitlane with a problem with his WSR BMW 330i M Sport on the formation lap.
Sam got off the line well as the lights went out, and immediately got the jump on Dexter Patterson’s ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra Leon, before being promoted to 15th when Jake Hill’s Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport BMW 330i M Sport dropped down the field.
On the third lap, Sam then got by Aiden Moffat (LKQ Euro Car Parts with WSR BMW 330E M Sport) and Mikey Doble’s Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing Cupra Leon, while fending off the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with IAA Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Josh Cook.
However, he eventually lost out to Cook on the fifth tour before resuming the battle with Mikey Doble. And he eventually lost out to the Cupra Leon on the run down Hailwoods Hill and into the Druids hairpin on the tenth lap, before running to take the chequered flag in fifteenth place to score a solitary championship point.
RACE 2 (18 Laps)
The penultimate race of the season saw Sam start where he’d finished earlier in the day (15th). And like the first race, his Ford Focus ST was booted with the medium tyre and with the usual eight laps worth of boost available.
Once again, the number 77 Ford got off the line well and, being helped by Adam Morgan (Team Vertu Hyundia i30N) being spun down the field by one of the other Napa Racing UK Fords, had climbed up five spots by the time he exited the Druids hairpin.
However, Aron Taylor-Smith’s Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with IAA Toyota Corolla GR Sport got by later in the lap, before the sister car of Josh Cook got by on the run towards Paddock Hill at the start of lap two.
That was soon followed by the Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport BMW 330i M Sport of Jake Hill relegating Sam to thirteenth, before Aiden Moffat and Adam Morgan both got by the Ford Focus ST on laps four and five respectively.
Sam was promoted back up to fourteenth later on the fifth lap, after Aron Taylor-Smith tapped the LKQ Euro Car Parts with WSR BMW 330i M Sport of Charles Rainford into retirement at Paddock Hill, which prompted a safety car intervention.
Racing resumed on the ninth (of a now 18 lap race), but Taylor-Smith (Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with IAA Toyota Corolla GR Sport) crashed out at Druids on the next lap to send out a second safety car.
Tom Chilton’s Team Vertu Hyundia i30N died on him while behind the safety car, which prompted Sam up into 12th place before racing resumed on the fourteenth lap leaving Sam to chase after Chris Smiley’s Restart Racing Hyundia i30N, while defending from the sister car of Daniel Lloyd and Daryl DeLeon’s WSR BMW 330i M Sport in a four-lap shootout.
He couldn’t get by Smiley, but Sam did successfully fend off the BMW of DeLeon to finish twelfth and score another three championship points.
RACE 3 (18 Laps)
The third and final race of the weekend (and season) saw the number 77 Ford Focus ST start in twelfth place. For one final time, Sam had the full quota of eight laps worth of boost available, but this time he was on the soft tyres.
Once again, Sam got a good launch off the line to get by the Team Vertu Hyundia i30N of Adam Morgan and the Restart Racing Hyundia i30N of Chris Smiley to finish the opening lap in tenth place.
The third lap saw the number 77 Ford have a good old-fashioned ding-dong with Morgan’s Hyundia, as they traded places throughout before Morgan eventually prevailed to leave Sam in 11th by the fourth lap.
Unfortunately, the safety car was deployed on the same lap after Daniel Rowbottom deliberately took out teammate Dan Cammish who had no choice but to retire his Napa Racing UK Ford Focus ST with broken suspension.
With Sam now back into the top ten, racing resumed on the eighth lap of now 18, which saw the number 77 Ford defending well from Dexter Patterson’s ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra Leon, Chris Smiley’s Restart Racing Hyundia i30N, and the LKQ Euro Car Parts with WSR BMW 330i M Sport of Charles Rainford.
And that’s where Sam finished at the chequered flag, before being promoted to ninth after Daniel Rowbottom was disqualified from the race.
In conclusion, after a long season of thirty races spread across ten circuits, Sam finished in a respectable 16th place in the BTCC Drivers’ Championship table with 108 points. He also finished third in the Jack Sears Trophy with 426 points, after signing off his campaign with victory in the last Jack Sears Trophy race of the weekend.
By Chris Palmer
