£350k stolen racing car found after ransom call

A stolen racing car worth about £350,000 has been found, its team says, but not before its principal got a call "with somebody FaceTiming me showing me the car trying to get the ransom".

British Touring Car Championship team Power Maxed Racing in Studley, Warwickshire, said its Dexter Patterson BTCC Audi was taken from a compound at Excel London on Wednesday night.

Adam Weaver stated he "basically said.. 'it's not gonna happen tonight [Thursday].. I would need to organise the cash and I wanna sleep on it'."

But the team, whose former HQ near Evesham was destroyed in a fire in 2025, revealed he later had another call to say "the police had been called and it was in a road still in London".

The BBC has previously contacted Excel London for a statement while the Metropolitan Police said it did not comment on individual incidents of car crime.

Weaver has said the team had taken the car to the London venue for filming and promotional work.

It was put into a trailer, which was locked in the Excel's secure car park overnight, but Weaver said he was told three people managed to gain access to the site.

They brought in a vehicle and towed away the trailer with the car inside, Weaver added.

On Friday he told BBC Hereford & Worcester that late on Thursday night police recovered the vehicle, following news coverage and the incident being "shared across so many people's social media".

"I did actually get a telephone call with somebody FaceTiming me showing me the car trying to get the ransom and I was trying to figure out how I could.

"They were asking me to bring cash and they'd give me the car back.

"I had a conversation with them and basically said 'look it's not gonna happen tonight'."

Weaver added that caller said he would "'give you a call in morning'", but "a couple of hours later I had a call to say... the police had been called and it was in a road still in London about 10 minutes away from where it was taken".

The team principal said the team had taken steps to keep the car secure by wheel-clamping the trailer and backing it up to another vehicle so it could not be opened.

But at about 02:30 GMT on Thursday, the trailer was stolen with the car in, he added.

"I was going to bed [on Thursday] actually working out 'do I risk trying to get the money together to go and meet these people to get the car back' and was having to deal with that.

"Then all of a sudden I got the call to say it had been recovered. It was fantastic."

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