WSR resume the challenge for the British Touring Car Championship with an expanded three-car line-up as the UK’s leading series returns from its summer break at Thruxton this weekend.
Joining BTCC race winners Charles Rainford and Daryl De Leon for the rest of the season aboard a trio of BMW 330i M Sports will be Scottish newcomer Lewis Gilbert, who is switching to touring car racing from the GB3 single-seater series.
The 18-time title winners hold second place in the overall and Independent Teams’ championships after a fast and consistent start to the season, the highlights of which have been two victories for Charles and two podiums for Daryl.
Charles is fourth in the Drivers’ points table after his Oulton Park win, which was the third of his BTCC career. The 28-year-old from Horsham now returns to a circuit where he was a race winner in Porsche Carrera Cup GB in 2023.
Team-mate Daryl holds second place in the Independents’ standings – only five points behind the leader – and sixth in the overall championship.
The Anglo-Filipino, who is based in Cambridgeshire, was the Jack Sears Trophy winner for the weekend at Thruxton last year as he surged towards securing the title later in the season.
Twenty-two-year-old Lewis, from Dalry, North Ayrshire, has never raced at Thruxton and had his first taste of the BMW 3 Series BTCC car with a one-day test at Snetterton.
The Scottish driver is a UK and European Champion in karting and is joining WSR half a season into his maiden season of car racing.
WSR has enjoyed some huge successes at Thruxton, sealing its first two British Formula 3 titles there in 1981 and ’83 and scoring one of the most dominant BTCC victories in series history in 2006 when Colin Turkington won by over 11 seconds.
In total, the team has won there nine times in the BTCC and significantly sealed BMW’s 100th series victory in 2017, as well as double wins with the 3 Series in 2019 and 2024.
HOW TO WATCH…
While all races will be broadcast in HD on ITV4 from 1100 on Sunday, agreement means that 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 Thruxton, Charles will be restricted to using his boost for only seven seconds per lap during qualifying and in the Qualifying Race once he’s travelling above 125kph, and for four laps during Race One. Daryl will have a boost allocation of 11 seconds per lap from 115kph and for six laps of Race One while Lewis will have the maximum 20 seconds per lap from 105kph and for 10 laps in 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 Thruxton, the hard-compound Goodyear tyre will be used in all of Sunday’s races.
WHAT THEY SAID…
Charles Rainford: “The Summer break has come earlier than normal this year because of the World Cup, and our wins at Snetterton and Oulton Park feel like an awfully long time ago, but we’ve had a good chance to assess where we are and plan strategically for the rest of the season. Thruxton is unique in the BTCC because so much of it is high-speed and because we don’t have the variable of option tyres on race day. The BMW seems to have a mixed history at Thruxton, so it’s hard to know where we’ll shake out, but if we work to the very best of our ability, we should be somewhere in the mix.”
Daryl De Leon: “The summer break’s been very busy, quick and brilliant! I’m just ready to get down to business now at Thruxton and to activate my yournameonabtcccar.com campaign. I’m sixth in the championship and second in the Independent Drivers’ points, so I’m going to continue pushing on to climb the standings. Thruxton is traditionally a front-wheel-drive track so we’ll definitely have to dig deep if we want the success with the BMW however, we know that’s what it will take so that will be our plan.”
Lewis Gilbert: “Ever since I agreed to join WSR for the remaining six events of the year, I’ve been counting down the days to my debut. The BTCC is 100 per cent where I want to race and to finally be here, with a positive first test at Snetterton in the bag, feels great. Touring Cars is a totally new game for me so I know I have a lot to learn and I’m not setting any outlandish targets for the weekend, but having the experience of the WSR team around me is going to be a huge help. I can’t wait to get going at Thruxton.”
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal: “Thruxton always throws up close racing, but it’s tended to favour front-wheel-drive cars due to the track characteristics. The lack of an option tyre at Thruxton takes out one of the variables that we’ve turned to our advantage with our extensive experience, so if you don’t maximise your potential in qualifying, it can be very hard to turn your weekend around. We’re expecting it to be hotter than in previous seasons as we’re a bit later in the year, and that could benefit us because of how good the BMW is on its tyres. It’s going to be a big weekend with Lewis joining the team and it will be interesting to see how he gets on with his first taste of BTCC competition.”
