The Brackley squad, formerly known as BTC Racing, went without an overall race win in 2023 for the first time in six seasons, although Josh Cook claimed the Independents’ title.
That was despite replacing its faithful fleet of Honda Civic Type Rs with ostensibly identical Civics raced up until the end of 2022 by Honda builder Team Dynamics, before that team pulled out prior to 2023 when it lost its main sponsor.
The ex-Dynamics Civics also came with bespoke Honda powerplants produced by Neil Brown Engineering, but One Motorsport had no track-test programme throughout the year beyond the season launch day.
One also lost team principal Danny Buxton, who had carried out the role since the start of the 2022 season, to rival team Speedworks Motorsport in the summer, and drivers Cook and Aiden Moffat have since followed him to the Cheshire squad.
“This has been an extremely difficult decision to make – however, it has been made for the betterment of the team and guaranteeing our future success in the sport,” said One Motorsport team owner Steve Dudman.
“It goes without saying that everyone shall be facing their own challenges this year, from drivers to sponsors alike, and we are no different to that. There has been a lot of back and forth in regard to what our 2024 plans would be, but when I finally made this decision after discussion with TOCA, I knew deep down it was the right one at this time.
“We won’t be downing tools as we have a clear programme of work that we want to carry out on both our chassis’, aero and cooling systems together with our engine programmes this year with our highly respected partners NBE.
“With what we hope will be a year on the sidelines, we can come back next season in a strong position and hit the ground running and with a fresh look in everything we do. We’ll be sure to keep everyone posted as things progress.”
Under BTCC regulations, what One has described as an ‘aim of returning to the grid to fight for outright honours in 2025’ would mean that the team would once again need to go through the process of acquiring TBL entrants’ licences from series organiser TOCA.
The disappearance of One from the grid for this season, along with the absence of Team Hard, has been mitigated in part by the arrival of Restart Racing – the team set up by the Taylor family that formerly worked with Dudman at BTC.
At face value that leaves a reduction to 21 cars for this season for the BTCC, but sources have suggested that one of the existing teams is working on a deal whereby it could wheel out an additional car, potentially to be run by a satellite operation.
BTCC insiders are also not ruling out more of the Team Hard Cupra Leons, in addition to those acquired by Restart, being mopped up for a programme in 2024.
