A fresh project for everyone: looking back on PMR’s first season with Audi

Back in February, Dexter Patterson said something that stuck with us. “The move to the Audi S3 makes this a fresh project for everyone.”

Eight months on, he’s the 2026 Jack Sears Trophy winner. And we got to watch the whole thing from up close, with our name on his car.

If you’ve ever pulled a car apart in your garage, you’ll know the feeling of looking at a bare shell and wondering what you’ve let yourself in for. Now imagine doing it with no workshop.

In August 2025, a fire destroyed Power Maxed Racing’s base at Bretforton. Two months later, the team announced it was switching to the Audi S3 Saloon. By March, it had moved to Studley and built three brand-new cars from scratch. That’s not a rebuild. That’s starting again.

The three Audis ran together for the first time at the official pre-season test at Croft. The team liked what it saw so much it booked an extra day to keep going.

Then came Donington Park in April. Mikey Doble was declared the race one winner after Tom Ingram’s exclusion, giving the new Audi a win at the very first attempt. Dexter had the best weekend of his BTCC career so far: seventh, seventh and sixth, and the Jack Sears Trophy for the round. His words: “Best ever weekend in Touring Cars.” Fair enough, Dex.

It’s named after Jack Sears, the very first BTCC champion back in 1958. These days it goes to the best driver who hadn’t stood on a BTCC podium at the start of the season. You can only win it once. Think of it as the prize for the drivers clawing their way up and you’ll see why it means so much.

Dexter was top of the standings by the summer. At Oulton Park in June, he and Mikey each made their 100th BTCC start. At Silverstone in September, he sealed the trophy with a round to spare and a 111-point lead nobody could catch.

The Audis kept delivering around him. Mikey won race three at Croft. Aiden Moffat took his first win of the year at Silverstone. Then at the Brands Hatch finale, Mikey took the Independent Drivers’ title and the LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing squad wrapped up the Independent Teams’ title too.

That’s five Jack Sears Trophies for PMR: 2015, 2017, 2023, 2024 and now 2026. No other team has won it more than twice.

“We’ve been around Audis for 37 years, and we still got goosebumps watching this one,” says Mark Ash, our Managing Director.

— Mark Ash, our Managing Director.

“PMR started from nothing and built three cars from scratch. Then Dexter went out and won the Jack Sears in a car that was new to everyone. That’s the sort of graft our customers understand because it’s how most of them build their own cars.”

If car 17 caught your eye this year, you might have spotted its road-going twin. We wrapped our own Audi RS3 8Y in Dexter’s livery and gave it the full treatment. Read the full RS3 build here.

Congratulations, Dexter, Mikey, Aiden and everyone at PMR. Roll on 2027.