Young talent Leslie replaces Pearson in Toyota for Oulton Park BTCC round

Highly rated reigning Fiesta Junior champion Finn Leslie is to make his British Touring Car Championship debut at Oulton Park this weekend.

The 17-year-old Yorkshire college student is to replace Ronan Pearson in the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Gazoo Racing UK line-up due to what the team described as ‘unexpected commercial challenges’.

Pearson had high hopes heading into 2025 after his campaign last season with Excelr8 Motorsport ended with three rounds remaining.

The 23-year-old Scot made the ‘Quick Six’ shootout in qualifying at the Donington Park opener, but his best race result to date is an eighth at Snetterton.

Speedworks boss Christian Dick said: “Ronan has been a key member of the team since joining us back at the beginning of the year, and has demonstrated his speed and skill in the Corolla on numerous occasions.

“Sadly, in this day and age, commercial considerations often speak loudest and, while both sides have explored every feasible option, we ultimately had to accept that it will be impossible for Ronan to be in the car at Oulton.”

While Speedworks has been careful to only say that Pearson will be sidelined from Oulton, and Leslie’s outing is understood to be a one-off, it is unclear who will join Gordon Shedden, Aron Taylor-Smith and James Dorlin in the line-up when the BTCC reconvenes at Croft after its summer break.

Leslie has impressed this season on his graduation to the TCR UK series, in which he lies fifth in the standings.

“I watched his progress through Fiesta Juniors and he was very impressive in winning the series,” Speedworks head of racing Danny Buxton told Autosport.

“Straight into TCR, he was onto the podium almost immediately, which is a pretty astonishing feat because those cars are a handful.

“He comes very highly rated by Paul O’Neill [ex-BTCC race winner and latter-day tin-top pundit] who does a lot of work in the TCR arena, and Paul verified my thoughts that Finn was one to watch.”

“We wanted to give Finn a shot and this represents a superb chance for him to showcase his skills on a major stage,” added Dick about Leslie, who had his first run in a BTCC car on Wednesday when he got behind the wheel of the Corolla GR Sport.

“Having only had a very limited amount of running in the Corolla, he faces a tall order at Oulton, but everything we’ve seen so far suggests he is more than up to the task.”