The British Touring Car Championship season resumes at Croft this weekend with WSR ready to get back on track following the series’ six-week summer break.
The reigning champions are the most successful team in BTCC history at Croft with 22 wins since the North Yorkshire circuit was re-introduced to the series in 1997 and no car on the grid can match the BMW 3 Series’ five victories at the track.
Champion Jake Hill was a winner at Croft in 2021 and has finished on the podium on three further occasions. The Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport driver is targeting a return to the rostrum with his BMW 330i M Sport as the second half of the season starts.
Croft also holds happy memories for Scotsman Aiden Moffat, who scored a win there in 2021 as well as a pole position. It remains the only one of his BTCC victories achieved with a rear-wheel-drive race car.
His LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR team-mate Charles Rainford is the highest-placed rookie in the BTCC points in 10th overall following a first half of the season that included a maiden series victory at Brands Hatch.
He is also second in the Jack Sears Trophy standings behind fellow WSR driver Daryl DeLeon, having scored two class wins and eight further category podiums in the 15 races so far.
Anglo-Filippino racer Daryl made his BTCC debut at Croft in 2023 and, like Charles, became a first-time winner at Brands Hatch in May on only his second weekend racing the BMW.
The Cambridgeshire driver’s target is to add to his two Jack Sears Trophy wins and nine additional podiums as well as to continue his climb up the overall standings.
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 will be broadcast on the ITV Sport YouTube channel without geographic restrictions.
Need to know…
In 2025, entrants in the BTCC use a 100 per cent sustainable fuel for the first time. This replaces the hybrid power unit that was used from 2022-24; the removal of which means that all cars are 55kg lighter than last year.
To aid overtaking, drivers can access the series’ TOCA Turbo Boost during qualifying and racing, meaning up to a 60bhp increase against cars not using boost.
Because of his championship position, Jake will be allowed to use hybrid boost for nine seconds on each lap of qualifying and for five laps of Race One. Boost will be available to Jake once he is doing 130kph.
Aiden, Charles and Daryl can access their Boost from 115kph, will be able to use it for 15s per lap in qualifying and for eight laps in Race One. Boost allocations will be re-set based on the Race One finishing order.
At Croft the soft-compound Goodyear will be the standard tyre while the hard must also be used during one of Sunday’s three races.
What they said…
Jake Hill, Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport: “It’s great to get back underway after the summer break. The first half of the season hasn’t gone the way we’d hoped after the win at Brands, but the whole team has worked incredibly hard to turn things around. Croft is a place with special memories for me and the team, so I’m looking forward to getting back out there and hopefully putting together a strong weekend.”
Charles Rainford, LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR: “It’s only been six weeks of summer, but it feels like 600! That’s how keen I am to get back behind the wheel of my BMW. Even on the days when things haven’t gone so well, my first half-season in the BTCC has been an amazing experience. Now that I’ve had a break and a chance to really analyse what we’ve done so far, I think I can head to Croft in a stronger position than I’ve ever been and really put the hammer down as I try to score more wins and podiums and close on the Jack Sears Trophy lead.”
Daryl DeLeon, WSR: “It’s great to know that we’ll be back racing in only a couple of days. The first half of the season has had some fantastic days – like at Brands Hatch when I got my first win – and some frustrating ones too, but now we’re all back for Croft – where I made by BTCC debut two years ago – and ready to go. Winning the Jack Sears Trophy was a clear goal of mine for 2025 and so far we’ve hit our marks pretty well because I’m leading it. Keeping up the momentum and getting regular strong finishes has to be the aim up to the end of the season.”
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal: “We’ve had some ups and downs so far in 2025, but the summer break has been a good chance for us to sit down as a team, take a good, hard look at where we are with the BMW and work out some engineering solutions to improve our performances. We had a good, dry, and very hot test at Snetterton a month ago with all four cars and some of the things we learned should put us in a good position to be stronger overall at all of the remaining tracks.”
