WSR FlexiFly are excited to announce the team’s inaugural endurance racing programme in the British GT Championship in 2026 with touring car legend Colin Turkington anchoring the driver line-up.
Three-time FIA European Historic Rally champion Ernie Graham joins the four-time British Touring Car Championship title winner to form an all-Northern Irish line-up in a brand-new BMW M4 GT4 EVO in the GT4 Pro-Am category of the six-round series.
The announcement underlines WSR’s commitment to GT racing in a new era for the team, who are moving into endurance competition alongside their ultra-successful BTCC programme, which has netted 18 outright titles and a record 137 race wins.
The Sunbury-on-Thames team will be supported by FlexiFly, a leading UK-based provider of private aircraft self-hire solutions with flexible booking and access to hundreds of smaller airports across Europe.
Colin, who lives near Silverstone, has claimed a record four BTCC titles with WSR and 72 race victories to sit second on the series’ all-time list, and has also been a winner in the FIA World Touring Car Championship with the team.
He made his endurance racing debut in a one-off appearance in the GT Cup Championship in 2025 and now moves into the discipline full-time, representing the BMW brand – just as he did when he claimed his four BTCC crowns.
WSR newcomer Ernie has enjoyed a successful career in rallying stretching back more than 30 years, which includes an FIA Middle East Rally Cup in 1994 and several appearances in the FIA World Rally Championship.
More recently he has been a regular fixture in high-level classic competition; winning the Ireland Tarmac Historic Championship in 2015 and three FIA European Historic Rally Championship titles in 2005, 22 and ‘23.
He also claimed the overall Motorsport UK English Rally Championship in the latter season and took a silver medal at the FIA Motorsport Games in the Historic Rally Gravel discipline in 2024, representing Team UK.
Ernie made his circuit racing debut in April 2025 driving a BMW 3 Series in the BMW Car Club Racing Championship and took nine podium finishes on his way to second place in the Cup class points.
He partnered with Colin for the first time to share a BMW M3 E30 for the Motor Racing Legends Historic Touring Car Challenge at the Silverstone Festival; the pair adding a podium finish when they next teamed up in October for the Tony Dron Trophy.
The British GT Championship begins with the series’ longest event, the three-hour duration ‘Silverstone 500’, on April 25-26.
Ernie Graham: “I’m so excited to be moving into the British GT Championship with WSR FlexiFly. I’d wanted to race a BMW from my first visit to the RAC Tourist Trophy at Silverstone in 1988. I’ve now raced and rallied them and this year we get to take things to the next level. Pairing up with Colin for a couple of historic races last year really helped lift my performance and after he introduced me to the team at WSR, and I saw everything they’d achieved with Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Nigel Mansell and so many other drivers, my mind was made up that I wanted to come to British GT and have a real go. It might sound strange to leave a world I know, and have been successful in, to take a leap into the unknown, but I’ve always loved new challenges, so I feel ready for it and think we can represent ourselves well.”
Colin Turkington: “I’m delighted to be back in racing full-time in 2026. It’s been an ambition of mine for a little while to dive seriously into GT racing, so to be able to do it in the British GT Championship, with all its history and the big names and major brands that are here, is really exciting. To do it with WSR FlexiFly – a team that really has been a second family to me over the past 20-plus years – is the icing on the cake. I’ve been driving with Ernie since last Summer and while he’s relatively new to circuit racing, he has so much experience from the rally stages and you need serious skill and bravery to do well there. I’m sure we have all the ingredients necessary to perform well.”
Carl Mitchell, WSR Sporting & Operations Director: “From the moment we announced our intention to enter GT racing, we always targeted competing in the British GT Championship as the first major step on this journey, so it’s fantastic to be able to announce WSR FlexiFly’s full-season entry today. In Ernie and Colin, we have two drivers from very different ends of the motorsport spectrum, but what combines them is their ability to deliver championship success and their determination to develop and improve, which is something we constantly strive for as a team as well. It’s going to be big learning year for us, but we’re ready to expand operations, which includes welcoming back some team members with previous GT racing experience, and who will blend well with our existing championship-winning BTCC staff, who will also support this entry. We’re very excited about what’s to come.”
