Lady Luck deserts Aron Taylor-Smith on tricky trip to Brands Hatch!

Aron Taylor-Smith was able to salvage some points from a mixed visit to Brands Hatch in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship last weekend [6-7 May].

The Irishman arrived at the 1.2-mile Kent circuit, the scene of his debut victory in the BTCC back in 2012, buoyed by the arrival of new daughter Oaklie, and after a promising start to the 2023 campaign for the CarStore Power Maxed Racing squad.

That was only heightened after the 33-year-old came within a whisker of making it into the coveted top-ten shootout in qualifying, with Taylor-Smith just 0.090 seconds adrift in a session interrupted consistently by red flags, and in treacherously wet conditions.

In race trim, however, ‘Lady Luck’ went against the four-time race winner. After a bright start and places gained in the opening contest, a small component failure limited Taylor-Smith’s progress, and he did well to bring the car home where it started – P12 – and add to his points tally for the season.

That would be where the day’s action, in effect, ended however, with an engine problem forcing Taylor-Smith to park up early in race two and, despite the best efforts of the team, the subsequent turnaround time before the final race left them with an impossible task to return Aron to the fray.

Snetterton’s 300 circuit hosts the next three rounds of the championship on 20-21 May.

Aron Taylor-Smith (#40) said:

“On weekends like this, all we can do is take the positives. We were nine hundredths off making the top-ten shootout, so we can safely say we’ve unlocked a little bit more one-lap pace in the Vauxhall Astra.