The reigning Jack Sears Trophy champion Mikey Doble will be the driver for Power Maxed Racing’s single-car British Touring Car Championship effort in 2025.
The 26-year-old Surrey racer won the sub-division for drivers who, pre-season, were yet to claim an overall BTCC podium.
But he arguably created more of an impression by coming within half a lap of a maiden victory at Oulton Park, and in causing one of the shocks of 2023 when he took pole position at Silverstone as a rookie.
Doble told Autosport that his targets for 2025 are “to win the outright Independents title and go for a race win” in his third consecutive season aboard Power Maxed’s Vauxhall Astra.
While he has also negotiated with other teams over the winter, Doble’s aspirations to remain in the series appeared to take a hit with the withdrawal of PMR’s title sponsor Evans Halshaw.
But a new partnership with Motor Parts Direct has persuaded the Midlands squad’s boss Adam Weaver to continue.
“We managed to sort something out, so I guess the dream goes on,” said Doble. “There was a stretch over the winter where we didn’t speak with Power Maxed, because they lost their main sponsor and they were somewhat reluctant to commit if they couldn’t deliver on their end of the bargain.
“The conversations didn’t really ignite again with Adam until the end of February. We both thought that we wouldn’t be back on the grid, and it was looking more and more bleak for me.”
Even with the departure of PMR’s 2024 Independents champion Aron Taylor-Smith, the highly rated Doble is confident that he can enjoy a strong season in the Astra.
“I certainly think that the best is yet to come from that car,” added Doble. “If you look at the trajectory from where we started at the beginning of 2023 with Aron and Andrew [Watson]… if we don’t get a win this year I won’t consider it a success.
“I’ve driven the car for two years and we’ve got decent data, so we’ll have plenty to work with. And I think it will be quite good to go in as the driver in a one-car team. Everyone tends to cheer for a bit of an underdog, and in a selfish way it’s nice to have all that attention to myself!”
Weaver believes that ex-PMR driver Josh Cook, in the One Motorsport Honda, “will be our biggest rival” for the Independents crown, and that Dan Lloyd, another PMR alumnus with the Restart Racing Hyundai squad, “will be a very credible competitor”.
But, after a swathe of podium finishes in recent seasons, his biggest target is a race victory – something that has eluded the team in the BTCC since Jason Plato won the 2019 finale.
“I’m fed up with all these second-place and teams’ trophies!” Weaver joked. “Mikey will be the first driver ever to do three years in a row with us, and we hope that pays off really.”
Weaver added that his “biggest motivation” was to keep his squad together, which he says will continue to be led by team manager and technical chief Martin Broadhurst.
“We probably have got one of the largest full-time teams in the paddock – a lot of people use contractors,” he said.
“My team manager is full-time, we have a full-time engineer, and that’s always been our mantra. The most important thing was to make sure these guys continued to hold full-time employment.”
Despite rumours of another team fielding an additional car in 2025, Weaver said PMR will retain both its TBL entrants’ licences, meaning the squad could expand to a second car alongside Doble.
“If the right person comes along with the right budget to run another car, we will,” he said. “I’m still talking to partners and sponsors, and Motor Parts Direct, and there are still drivers out there working hard.”
