WSR continue their British Touring Car Championship season at Donington Park this weekend as driver Charles Rainford prepares for his 50th start in the series.
Unlike at the season-opening round in April, the upcoming event takes place on the full 2.5-mile ‘Grand Prix’ layout of the East Midlands track, with the ‘Melbourne Loop’ and its pair of hairpins added to the ‘National’ circuit more commonly used by the BTCC.
After scoring a podium finish at that season-opener, Charles Rainford is back and looking for more aboard his BMW 330i M Sport.
Horsham driver Charles, who has two wins to his name in 2026 and holds fifth place in the points table, reaches a significant career milestone this weekend as Race Two at Donington is set to be the 50th of his BTCC career.
Team-mate Daryl De Leon enjoyed his visit to Donington’s GP circuit last year as he took a perfect score in the Jack Sears Trophy with class victories in all three races as he surged to the title at the end of the season.
That weekend included a pair of overall top-10 finishes for the Cambridgeshire-based Anglo-Filipino, who holds second place in the Independent Drivers’ standings – one point ahead of Charles – and is aiming to close significantly on the series lead.
Lewis Gilbert, also aboard a WSR BMW, is preparing for only the third BTCC event of his career.
The Scotsman, from Dalry, North Ayrshire, ran competitively in the final race at his home circuit of Knockhill recently with peak laptimes almost on a par with the race winner.
This will be the 22-year-old’s first time racing at Donington Park; his rookie season in racing having encompassed mainly circuits on the European continent before he took part in the BTCC events at Thruxton and Knockhill.
HOW TO WATCH…
While all races will be broadcast in HD on ITV4 from 1030 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 Donington, Charles will be restricted to using his boost for only 9 seconds per lap during qualifying and in the Qualifying Race once he’s travelling above 120kph, and for five 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 Donington, medium-compound Goodyear will be the standard tyre while the hard must also be used in one of Sunday’s three races.
WHAT THEY SAID…
Charles Rainford: “Fifty races in the BTCC! That’s come around really quickly. It only feels like yesterday that I was making my debut – also at Donington, but on the shorter circuit – and it’s amazing how things have progressed since then with a handful of wins, a pole position and more podiums. The target for this weekend is 100 per cent to add more, score as many points as I can and move up the championship table.”
Daryl De Leon: “Donington GP was a strong event for me last year as I won the Jack Sears Trophy in all three races and had a very strong performance in Race Two coming from the back to finish in the top five. Currently I’m second in the Independents’ points and if we can have a strong weekend, I’m sure I can close in on the leader and make it a really good fight for the title. We’ve had the pace recently, so I’m confident of our chances.”
Lewis Gilbert: “My first two BTCC events have been a really steep learning curve and Thruxton and Knockhill – because they’re such unique tracks – aren’t the best places to really try to click with your car. Donington is a much more conventional racetrack; it’s wide, smooth and has lots of medium-speed corners, so I think I can probably make more gains with my driving here than any other track so far. I’ve been hit a lot during first two weekends and been spun off the track, so a clean weekend and some points finishes – which I think we deserved at Knockhill with the pace we had – would be really satisfying to come away with.”
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal: “We’ve had mixed results on Donington’s longer track over the past few years with the BMW, with a win, but some frustrations too. Knockhill was a bit like that with the rain and the contact from other cars in Race One really destroying what could have been a very good Sunday for all three drivers. The long layout here means we’ll have fewer laps in qualifying than normal, but if we can perform to our best level, we should be in the mix for strong results across the board.”
