With just two rounds of the British Touring Car Championship remaining, WSR aim to finish the 2026 season on a high, starting this weekend at Silverstone, where Daryl De Leon is set to make his 100th start in the series.
The self-styled Home of British Motor Racing is a legendary venue globally and a special one for WSR as it was the scene of the team’s debut race win in 1981 and of their first BTCC success in 1998.
Now Daryl, plus team-mates Charles Rainford and Lewis Gilbert, are gearing up with their BMW 330i M Sport race cars as all three aim to build on their recent strong pace.
Daryl, 21, made history last year at Silverstone as he became the first Filipino driver to score a BTCC pole position.
The Cambridgeshire-based racer reaches another milestone this time around as Race 1 is set to be his 100th in the BTCC in a career that has so far featured a maiden race win, five podiums and two pole positions.
He and team-mate Charles are among eight drivers in contention for the Independents’ crown; the pair having won the class four times between them across the season and sitting fourth and third in the standings.
For Horsham racer Charles, the visit to Silverstone provides an opportunity to add to his two overall race wins in 2026 at Snetterton and Oulton Park and to help WSR close on the lead of the Independent Teams’ standings, in which they sit third.
Lewis, who joined WSR for his BTCC debut in July, enjoyed a breakthrough weekend at Croft last time out as the 22-year-old Scotsman, from Dalry, North Ayrshire, scored his first top-10 finish.
Lewis was also the Jack Sears Trophy winner for the event, taking a double class win in the process and boosting his hopes of a repeat this weekend on the 1.6-mile National circuit.
How to watch
While all races will be broadcast in HD on ITV4 from 1130 on Sunday, fans outside the UK and North America will be able to watch every BTCC race live on the BTCC YouTube channel. Qualifying and the Qualifying Race will be broadcast on the ITV Sport YouTube Extra channel without geographic restrictions.
Need to know
New for 2026 is a Qualifying Race – the ‘Race to Pole’ on Saturdays, in what is part of a major shake-up of the weekend format.
Saturdays now feature a single, 50-minute Free Practice session in the morning, instead of a pair of 35-minute sessions.
Qualifying is just a single session, split into two groups of 15 minutes each; one for drivers finishing in odd-numbered positions in practice and one for evens.
The fastest driver overall takes pole position for the Qualifying Race with others from their session lining up on the odd side of the grid in speed order and the same happening on the even side with drivers from the slower session.
The Qualifying Race, which is two-thirds the length of a Sunday race, will follow with the finishing order setting the grid for Sunday’s opener and points awarded to the top 15 finishers. Sunday’s race format is unchanged.
The series’ TOCA Turbo Boost (TTB) rules have also been tweaked with drivers now able to activate their boost earlier and for longer than in 2025.
At Silverstone, all three drivers will have boost allocations of 20 seconds per lap from 105kph and for 10 laps of Race One.
These figures will be re-set on a sliding scale for Races Two and Three based on the previous race’s finishing order and then for each subsequent round based on championship order, with those highest placed allowed less usage than other drivers.
At Silverstone, the soft-compound Goodyear will be the standard tyre while the medium must also be used in one of Sunday’s three races.
What they said…
Daryl De Leon: “I hadn’t realised my 100th BTCC race was so close, but it’s a good milestone to reach and I guess it makes me part of the furniture now. Silverstone was where I scored my first BTCC pole position last year, and with the improvement in form we saw last time out at Croft, I know we can be fast this weekend. We have an Independents’ title still to fight for and I’ll be aiming to finish right up at the front so I can keep the fight alive into the final event at Brands Hatch.”
Charles Rainford: “We showed some good speed at Silverstone last year and I was pretty pleased with a top-five finish and to see Daryl on pole, so that gives us a good bit of confidence that we can do something similar this time. I’ve been pretty happy with our pace over the past couple of events as we’ve been consistently in the top six on speed, but there’s been a bit of frustration that circumstances outside of our control have meant the results haven’t quite matched what we’ve been capable of. We’ll give it everything this weekend.”
Lewis Gilbert: “Croft was a massive weekend for me. It looked like a real breakthrough weekend with the results we scored, winning the Jack Sears Trophy, finishing in the top 10, but the reality is we had the speed to do that earlier, had circumstances not got in the way. I’ve now had a clean race weekend – even if it was one of very changeable conditions – and I’m definitely adjusting my targets now as we head to Silverstone. I can’t wait to get out on track.”
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal: “Some of the biggest highlights in WSR history have come at Silverstone, so it definitely means something to us every year when the trucks pull in for the BTCC’s annual visit. This is where we won on our racing debut in Formula 3 in 1981 with Jonathan Palmer and where we scored our first touring car success in 1998. Even last year we saw Daryl score his first BTCC pole position, so to still be fighting right at the front after 45 years is a real achievement for the team. Adding another race win this weekend is exactly what we’ll be looking for.”
