WSR enjoys record-breaking BTCC sweep at Brands Hatch
West Surrey Racing enjoyed a record-breaking day at the second meeting of the British Touring Car Championship season at Brands Hatch as it (...)
West Surrey Racing enjoyed a record-breaking day at the second meeting of the British Touring Car Championship season at Brands Hatch as it won all three races of the day on the 1.208-mile Indy layout.
Race 1 victory for Jake Hill, the organization’s 133rd, set the tone for the day, with Daryl DeLeon and Charles Rainford (pictured above) adding their maiden series victories in Races 2 and 3 to take WSR’s all-time tally up to 135 by the end of the day. It also moved BMW to within 18 of Honda, which occupies second on the manufacturers’ all-time wins list behind Ford.
Hill made a predictably strong start in Race 1, making the most of his rear-wheel-drive BMW’s advantage off the line, and was followed by teammate Rainford throughout the 24-lap race.
Tom Ingram finished second in his Excelr8 Motorsport-run Team Vertu Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance after getting the best of teammate Adam Morgan at the start. While he closed up to Rainford in second multiple times over the course of the race, he couldn’t find a way by.
Morgan finished fourth, but that would turn out to be a somewhat advantageous result with the top three finishers of Race 1 forced to use the hardest – and slowest – of the three tire compounds in the second race of the day.
Dan Cammish finished fifth in his NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST, ahead of Mikey Doble, who took the Independents win, DeLeon, Sam Osborne, and Dan Lloyd, who’d finished seventh on the road but got a five second penalty for a false start.
Grid positions for the second race of the day were determined by finishing positions from the first, and while the BMWs of Hill and Rainford again got away well initially, they were at the mercy of their harder tires.
Cammish, who’d started on the softer tire, quickly disposed of the Hyundais of Morgan and Ingram and way up to third by Graham Hill Bend. He then got by Rainford at the end of the second lap, with DeLeon and Morgan quickly following suit.
The race was neutralized on lap 7 following a collision at Paddock Hill bend between Unlimited Motorsport teammates Max Hall and Dexter Patterson which saw both of their Cupra Leonns end up in the gravel and the pair exchanging shoves as they walked away, both needing to be separated by a track marshal.
The race was set to resume on lap 14 but a bizarre incident at the end of the preceding lap extended the caution period. Coming to the end of the Cooper straight, Cammish went to change his engine map but he inadvertently hit the ignition switch, shutting down his car’s engine.
The bunched-up field behind him scrambled to get around the Ford parked in the middle of the track, with Doble and Aiden Moffat finding nowhere to go and hitting it, giving Cammish’s car left-rear suspension damage. It was a cruel end to a race that looked like it was Cammish’s to lose, second before the safety car, and running on softer tires than the leading Hill.
The race finally resumed on lap 20 and DeLeon immediately surged to the lead at the first turn, with Rainford also getting by Hill, who was quickly swamped by the field behind him, for second.
Two laps later Morgan found his way past Hill, with Ash Sutton and Chris Smiley also getting by in the final half of the lap.
On lap 24 – what would have been the last lap of the race but it was extended by three laps, the maximum allowed, because of the safety car period – Morgan got by Rainford going into Paddock Hill Bend for second, with Sutton getting by going into Graham Hill Bend a lap later.
With victory, Irish-born Filipino driver DeLeon became the first non-British winner in the BTCC since Irishman Aron Taylor-Smith at Rockingham in 2016, and the first to represent a nation outside the British Isles since Round 2 of 2010 at Thruxton when two-time champion Fabrizio Giovanardi triumphed.
Morgan finished second, with Sutton third to take what was his 100th BTCC podium, a poignant result on a weekend where he was running car No. 100 and special livery celebrating 100 years of NAPA.
Smiley took fourth ahead of Moffat, Josh Cook, and Rainford, while Hill faded to eighth, but resisted late pressure from Daniel Rowbottom and Ronan Pearson, who took ninth and 10th respectively. In another clear example of how much the hard tires hindered drivers on the hot day on the fast Indy Circuit, Ingram finished 11th having started third on the grid.
The third race of the day was a random partially reversed grid race, with drivers who finished sixth through 12 in Race 2 being put into a draw, the name drawn going to the pole. Rowbottom was chosen to start up front ahead of Hill, Rainford, and Cook who were reversed with him, Moffatt maintaining fifth by virtue of the position of the draw, Smiley, Sutton, Morgan, and DeLeon being shuffled back and Pearson, Ingram, and Tom Chilton remaining in their places in the top 12.
Immediately off the start Rowbottom faced pressure from Hill, with the pair running side by side through the first two turns. Rowbottom was able to consolidate his position at the head of the pack by Turn 3, but it wouldn’t last long.
Having already disposed of Hill, Rainford muscled his way past at the first corner on the second lap, contact between the pair unsettling Rowbottom’s Ford. Rowbottom tried to come back on the run to the second turn, Druids, but Rainford held firm.
On lap 9 Rowbottom fell to Hill, who immediately set about pressuring his teammate for the lead. He spent the next few laps hounding Rainford, but with Rainford having more Turbo Boost deployments available, he was able to hold on.
His victory was assured on lap 20 of 24 when Hill had to take avoiding action when Hall slowed with a puncture through the final two turns. While Rainford disappeared off into the distance, that left Hill at the mercy of Ingram who’d been taking time out of the leading BMW duo after passing Rowbottom for third on lap 14.
Despite piling on the pressure, Ingram wasn’t able to get by and had to settle for third. He did, however, set the lap record with a 47.157s on lap 9. It was a day where the touring car lap record round the Brands Hatch Indy circuit tumbled regularly, with Rainford breaking it in Race 1 and DeLeon in Race 2.
Rainford’s first BTCC win comes in just his sixth start – his second race meeting – in the category having made his debut two weeks ago on the Donington Park National circuit after graduating to the series as last year’s Porsche Carrera Cup GB runner-up.
Sutton finished Race 3 in fourth, ahead of Smiley, Cook, Chilton, and Moffat, with polesitter Rowbotton eventually falling to ninth. Gordon Shedden finished 10th, capping off a remarkable recovery throughout the day having started Race 1 from 24th on the 25-car grid.
After six rounds, Sutton holds the championship lead with a five-point advantage over Ingram, with Hill in third a further seven points back. Morgan sits fifth, ahead of Rowbottom, Cammish, Smiley, and Rainford, with Moffat rounding out the top 10 in the standings. The BTCC season continues May 24-25 at Snetterton.
