WSR returns to its most successful circuit, Croft, as the British Touring Car Championship enters the final phase of the 2026 season this weekend.
The 18-time series champions have won 22 races at the North Yorkshire venue since it was reintroduced to the series in 1997 and no car on the grid can match the current-model BMW 3 Series’ five victories at the track.
A WSR podium lock-out and a clean sweep of victories in 2015 was one of the most dominant performances in recent BTCC history while wins have also been achieved in three of the last four visits to the track.
Daryl De Leon made his BTCC debut at Croft in 2023 and last year scored an overall podium finish as well as a double Jack Sears Trophy victory as he stormed towards the title at the end of the season in his BMW 330i M Sport.
The 21-year-old Anglo-Filipino scored his third rostrum result of the year last time out at Donington Park as he closed on the lead of the Independents’ Championship – in which he currently holds second place.
Team-mate Charles Rainford is a two-time race winner in 2026, having triumphed at Snetterton and Oulton Park; a pair of circuits that share a number of characteristics with Croft and its blend of slow and fast corners.
The Horsham racer was the Jack Sears Trophy round winner at Croft last year and is WSR’s highest-placed driver in the overall standings in seventh place.
BTCC rookie Lewis Gilbert, who is competing at Croft for the first time in his racing career, endured a frustrating event at Donington as he was fired into a high-speed roll by a rival driver during the opening race.
The extensive damage to his BMW 330i M Sport and the two-week gap between events has not left sufficient time for repairs, meaning that the 22-year-old Scot, from Dalry, North Ayrshire, will switch to a spare chassis for this event.
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 the introduction of 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, 40-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 standard 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 Croft, Charles will be restricted to using his boost for only 15 seconds per lap during qualifying and in the Qualifying Race once he’s travelling above 110kph, and for eight laps during Race One. Daryl and Lewis 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 Croft, the soft-compound Goodyear will be the standard tyre while the hard must also be used in one of Sunday’s three races.
What they said:
Daryl De Leon: “Croft was where my season started to turn around last year. I got on the podium, won the Jack Sears Trophy in two of the three races and then went on to qualify on the front row in three of the last four events after that. The podium at Donington last time out felt similar so I’m aiming to use that to hit the ground running this weekend and aim to be in contention throughout the weekend. WSR and the BMW have a great record there so I think we can be right up there if we get our strategy right.”
Charles Rainford: “We’ve had a couple of difficult events since the summer break where we haven’t had the points we deserved thanks to circumstances beyond our control, but this is a new weekend and we have every opportunity to get back to the front and continue WSR’s mega record at Croft. The BTCC is all about fine margins and we just need things to tip a tiny amount in the other direction to have a really strong weekend like at Snetterton. Croft feels like the place to do it.”
Lewis Gilbert: “Croft’s a new circuit for me, but one where WSR and the BMW have been really successful in recent years. After the size of the incident at Donington, the team at WSR have had to work flat-out to prepare the spare car for me for this weekend and I’m really grateful to them for their efforts. I want to see that hard work rewarded and some points finishes would be a good way to start.”
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal: “Croft has been a circuit that’s suited our BMWs in the past and we’ve had some fantastic race days there; 2015 standing out with three wins and a podium lock-out. We can’t rest on our history at the track this weekend though – we have to get out there and do our very best work if we want to be taking home a few trophies. Croft is one of only two events in 2026 when we have to use both the hard and soft tyre on race day, and we’ve seen from the past how unpredictable the racing can be in this situation. The last time it happened, at Oulton Park, we won thanks to playing the strategy just right and we’re determined to get back on top of the podium.”
