Turning his attention to the BTCC, he was teammate to ex-Superbike racer Aaron Slight in 2002 driving a Vauxhall Astra Coupé for Barwell Motorsport.

In 2003 he finished in 9th place overall driving a works Honda Civic Type-R run by Arena Motorsport alongside Matt Neal and Alan Morrison.

He and Arena rejoined the BTCC at the second meeting of the season and combined his touring car duties with racing for Zytek in the ALMS and LMS endurance series.

Chilton's involvement with Zytek continued, subject to funding and availability; Tom and his brother Max drove the car at the Silverstone 1000 km in September 2007.

He left to partner Gordon Shedden at Team Dynamics for the 2008 BTCC season and replacing VX Racing-bound Matt Neal.

For 2009 Chilton returned to Arena Motorsport to drive a Ford Focus ST in the BTCC under the Team Aon banner, but spent much of the year developing the car and he ended the season 13th in the drivers' standings.

The LPG-powered car was more competitive, taking four of the first five poles, but bad luck meant teammate Tom Onslow-Cole took better results than Chilton initially.

[4] Onslow-Cole finished ahead in the overall drivers' championship but Chilton secured the Independents' Trophy by a two-point margin over Steven Kane.

For 2011 the team developed a new car based on the new third generation Ford Focus which ran to Super 2000 regulations powered by an NGTC turbocharged engine.

After five seasons absent, Chilton returned to the BTCC in 2017, driving a factory-supported Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.

[14] In the final race at Macau, Chilton lost control in the oil left on the track from Alex MacDowall's collision with the barrier on lap 4, the subsequent crash forced him to retire.

After the season, the Arena Motorsport suspended their WTCC programme after losing technical backing from Ford and closed down, leaving Chilton without a drive for 2013.

[15][16] Chilton moved to RML for the 2013 season, driving a Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T alongside former world champion Yvan Muller.

When he won the independent's title, in overall standings, Chilton finished 3rd behind two championship contenders, Norbert Michelisz and that season's champion, Thed Björk.

More recently he has appeared in Series 10 episode 6 when he raced a Chevrolet motorhome with other touring car drivers as well as Richard Hammond.

On 6 December 2009, he appeared in a further episode of Top Gear, racing against other touring car drivers in airport vehicles.

[24] Chilton appeared as a single man in Episode 4 of the first series of the ITV show Take Me Out hosted by Paddy McGuinness.