WSR had a promising start to its weekend at Croft, with Daryl De Leon battling through to finish fourth in the qualifying race from eighth on the grid, overtaking the reigning champion, putting on an epic defence on the last lap to keep the position.
Daryl had great pace in qualifying, missing out on the fastest time by just two-tenths of a second in his BMW 330i M Sport, putting him eighth on the grid, while Charles Rainford and Lewis Gilbert had mixed sessions, qualifying in 18th and 22nd respectively.
Daryl made up places at the start, and was already up to sixth by the end of the first lap, and then moved up one more spot due to a technical issue for a rival ahead.
On the penultimate lap, a costly mistake by the car ahead allowed Daryl to draw alongside and grab fourth at the hairpin, and he then put on a brilliant performance to hold on to fourth at the finish.
Charles was picking off cars all the way through the race, and was right on the tail of the tenth-placed car as they crossed the finish line.
Lewis showed good pace in the spare car with which he’s competing this weekend, after his race car was heavily damaged in the first race at Donington Park two weeks ago. The 22-year-old Scot made his way up from 22nd to finish 19th, which meant all three of WSR’s BMWs made moves up the field in the qualifying race.
Daryl was also the leading independent finisher in the race, and while no points were available today, this puts him in good stead to close down the ten-point gap in the independents’ championship to the points leader tomorrow.
Daryl De Leon: “The car was pretty good in practice where we finished in the top ten, and then we made some changes for qualifying which was good. We were P4 in our group, so we started P8 for the qualifying race and finished P4. I was in the battles a lot, we had good race pace, and looking forward to tomorrow where hopefully we can bring back some silverware.”
Charles Rainford: “It was a testing day, we went the wrong way with our tyre strategy in qualifying, but we fought back in the qualifying race to come back from 18th to 11th, so not a bad effort. I felt a lot quicker than the cars around me, and we’ll get our head down tomorrow. I think it could be wet which might help us, and if it is wet the tyre strategy could be interesting.”
Lewis Gilbert: “A massive thank you to the team getting the car back together after a pretty bad crash at Donington Park. They’ve done an amazing job. Qualifying wasn’t too bad, I probably could have dragged a bit more out of it, but the more laps I do the better I get. We moved up a few spots in the Qualifying Race, so we’re still moving forward and hopefully we’ll keep that going tomorrow.”
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal: “Daryl did a very good job today. For Charles, the tyres didn’t come in for some reason in qualifying, but that meant he was able to make a good improvement in the race going from 18th to 11th. Lewis is still on a learning curve, and he had a bit too much understeer and we’re trying to find out why, but to finish the race with three cars in one piece is good, and now we’re looking forward to tomorrow.
“If Daryl finishes where he’s qualified in the first race, we’ll get maximum points in the independents’ battle, which will be the objective to start the day.”
