WSR experienced a challenging Saturday as the British Touring Car Championship moved on to Oulton Park in Cheshire as both Charles Rainford and Daryl De Leon fought hard to make progress in a congested pack.
The pair of BMW 330i M Sports secured midfield finishing positions, giving both drivers a strong opportunity to make significant progress through the order across Sunday’s three races.
Charles and Daryl had shown solid pace in morning practice; both drivers using old tyres to set consistent laptimes during the 40-minute session, which began on a damp track following overnight rain.
With further showers threatening for Qualifying and the Qualifying Race – and no chance to adjust the BMWs in the 25-minute gap in between – compromise set-ups were applied to both cars by the team.
In the end, no rain came and Charles and Daryl, without the ultimate high-speed cornering grip needed for peak laptimes in dry conditions, were restricted to 15th and 17th spots on the grid, meaning a challenging ‘Race to Pole’ lay ahead.
Horsham racer Charles, who came into the weekend third in the points after his victory last time out at Snetterton, initially moved forwards, avoiding some early chaos to rise as high as 11th.
But with cars behind making the most of their additional boost allocation, he was powerless to fend off a series of attacks from rivals and finished 13th.
Anglo-Filipino Daryl – the reigning Jack Sears Trophy champion – got away well, but was boxed in on the narrow start-finish straight as he attempted to overtake a rival and retained his position.
Restricted by a similar set-up issue to Charles and also suffering from boost limitations as a result of his sixth spot in the points, he finished 15th.
Sunday’s three races will be screened live on ITV4, beginning at 1225.
Charles Rainford: “It’s been a testing day. How it can change in just two weeks in the BTCC is bonkers. We qualified near the back and finished near the back. I went the wrong way on set-up and that’s on me. We’re still lacking in boost and feeling it, but we’ll just go again tomorrow and see what we can do. We’ll take our medicine in Race One tomorrow, but watch this space because Race Three will be ours.”
Daryl De Leon: “It’s been a tough day at the office. After initially being at the top of time times with my first run in practice, it’s been a bit of a struggle. We went a little bit wrong with the direction of the set-up for Qualifying and the Qualifying Race and will have to look into where we went wrong and how to sort it out for tomorrow. We aren’t where we want to be, but tomorrow’s a new day and I’m excited for what we might be able to do.”
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal: “Today didn’t go the way we’d hoped, especially as we felt quite comfortable with the pace we had in practice. We went with a compromise set-up on both cars in case it rained, and it stayed dry so this – combined with the boost restrictions both Charles and Daryl had because of their high championship positions – meant we lost out a bit in terms of our ultimate performance. We’re hoping for predictable, consistent, weather tomorrow, and if we get that, we will go forwards.”
