BTCC Weekend Superstar: Mike Epps

With the traditional changeable weather conditions and electric atmosphere, the 2017 BTCC season got underway on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit. There were several standout performances throughout the course of the weekend: Colin Turkington rocketed from thirty-second to ninth in race two, Tom Ingram scored a double podium and Tom Chilton finished on the podium on his return to the championship in a brand new car. But of all the drivers on the grid, it was Team Hard's Mike Epps who stood out the most.

Epps showed flashes of speed last season, with seven points scoring finishes and with the news that Team Hard would switch back to the Volkswagen CC for this season, he was hoping to build on the results from his rookie campaign. - he managed to do this in spectacular fashion. In a tricky qualifying session with changeable conditions, Epps managed to stay out of trouble unlike several more experienced drivers and managed to set a best lap time of 48.942 seconds which was enough to put him thirteenth on the grid; nothing particularly special but a strong result nonetheless.

It was in the races though where Epps really started to shine. After an early safety car in race due to an incident between Colin Turkington and Matt Neal, Epps would have to try and hold off a storming Rob Collard. As long term fans of the series will attest to, Collard is one of the hardest racers on the grid and to hold him off for one lap takes some doing but Epps was able to make his Volkswagen very wide and he held Collard off for three laps and even once the multiple race winner had made his way through, the twenty five year old stuck right on the back of him, never dropping more than a few tenths behind. Following in the tire tracks of Collard, Epps started to close up and was able to make his way back past Collard on lap twelve and swiftly followed this up with a move on teammate Jake Hill just two laps later. His next target was another multiple race winner in the form of Mat Jackson and whilst he wasn't able to make a move, Epps managed to harry Jackson's Focus for several laps whilst also having to defend from Collard who eventually made his way back past on lap twenty-three. From there, Epps would hold off a late race challenge from Tom Chilton to finish ninth - his joint best BTCC result to date.

Changeable conditions weren't able to get the best of Epps in qualifying

On to race two and a reasonably poor start dropped Epps to thirteenth, but he wasted no time clawing his way back up from there as he made his way past Tom Chilton and Aiden Moffat on lap two with Ash Sutton becoming another victim just two laps later. Epps would then spend the next few laps chasing down the marginally more experienced Josh Cook before a safety car on lap eleven would briefly halt proceedings. On the restart, he would have the unenviable task of trying to attack Cook whilst trying to hold off a determined Chilton who would eventually squeeze his way past on lap nineteen. Epps looked set for another top ten finish until an absolutely flying Colin Turkington made his way by on the final lap but the exclusion of Rob Austin for overtaking under yellow flags soon saw Epps promoted back up to tenth, once again finishing as the top Team Hard car.

Race three would be the most spectacular of the day as Epps would end up involved in a titanic battle with teammate Jake Hill, the Toyota of Tom Ingram, Ollie Jackson's Audi and Aron Taylor-Smith in an MG during the opening laps. Towards the mid stages of the race, Taylor-Smith and Jackson dropped back, making it a three way fight for ninth place that ended with Epps making a fantastic move on the exit of Graham Hill Bend and into Surtees to get past Tom Ingram whilst teammate Hill also followed through. In the closing laps of the race, it would become a head-to-head battle between the two Team Hard cars, with Epps eventually managing to hold on to ninth place for the second time in three races.

In just one event, Epps has managed to very nearly score as many points as he did in the whole of last season. On top of that, he showed genuine pace all weekend and managed to cleanly and maturely battle with some of the best drivers in the sport, leaving him tenth in points heading into Donington. All of this makes Mike Epps a very deserving first Weekend Superstar of 2017.

Image: Mike Epps (@EppsRacer)

Words: Jordan Hines (@JordanHines33)

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