Adam Weaver, team principal of British Touring Car Championship outfit Power Maxed Racing, took a FaceTime call on Thursday night in which someone showed him the team’s stolen Audi and asked him to bring cash to get it back. The car, driven by Dexter Patterson, is valued by the team at about £350,000.
Weaver described the call to BBC Hereford & Worcester on Friday. He told the caller it was not happening that night, and the caller said he would be in touch in the morning. A second call, Weaver said, told him police had been alerted and the car was on a road still in London. Before the caller rang again, police told Weaver the car had been recovered close to ExCeL London. The Metropolitan Police told the BBC it does not comment on individual car thefts, so the recovery rests on the team’s account. No arrests have been reported.
Crews working on racing cars in a pit garage. Representative image, not Power Maxed Racing’s team. Photo: Scott Foltz / Pexels
How the trailer left the compound
The team had brought the car to ExCeL for filming and promotional work. It was loaded into a trailer and left in the venue’s secure car park overnight, wheel-clamped and backed up against another vehicle so the doors could not be opened, Weaver said. At about 02:30 GMT on Thursday, he was told, three people got into the site, brought in a vehicle and towed the trailer away with the car still inside.
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ExCeL London said on Thursday evening that it was aware of “an incident in relation to a vehicle theft” and that its security team was working with relevant stakeholders. The statement as reported does not say how the site was entered or how a clamped trailer was moved.
Who would pay for it
Dr Anthony Gunter, a criminologist at The Open University, told the BBC he believes the thieves wanted the trailer, which can be broken up and sold in parts, and had not realised the car was inside. His view is that a BTCC car has no market because everyone knows what it is. On that reading, the only person who would pay for it was the team.
Social media is what Weaver credits for the outcome. Power Maxed’s Facebook post thanked everyone who shared the earlier appeal and “made the car and trailer too hot to be handled.” We covered the same pressure play in a stolen $500,000 McLaren in Detroit, where the owner asked 1.1 million followers to find it.
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The car and the team
The team’s own paperwork is not consistent on the car. Its announcement of Patterson, a 22-year-old Scot, for 2026 refers to a new Audi S3, while the BTCC’s team listing gives the car as an Audi A3 Saloon. The BBC’s reporting says only “Audi.” The listing also puts the team’s base at Weston Subedge near Evesham, while the BBC places it in Studley, Warwickshire. The BBC notes the team’s former headquarters near Evesham was destroyed in a fire in 2025.
BTCC cars are a regular sight at circuits such as Brands Hatch. This one is due at the team’s Black Friday event later this month, according to its Facebook post.
Weaver said he spent Thursday night working out whether to risk gathering the money. Would you have paid to get the car back, or hung up and called the police?
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Sources: BBC Hereford & Worcester interview with Adam Weaver; statements from ExCeL London and the Metropolitan Police as reported by the BBC; Power Maxed Racing Facebook post; Power Maxed Racing driver announcement; BTCC team listing.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
