Fresh from a front-row start at Brands Hatch, WSR continue their challenge for the 2026 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship as the series moves to its most easterly venue, Snetterton, this weekend.
The 18-time series champions head to East Anglia following a podium finish for Charles Rainford at the Donington Park opener and a star performance in qualifying from Daryl De Leon at Brands Hatch; their BMW 330i M Sports looking ideally suited to the demands of the 2.97-mile circuit.
De Leon, currently third in the Independent Drivers’ standings, won the Jack Sears Trophy class in the first of three races at Snetterton last year, and the circuit was also the scene of his first BTCC top-10 finish in 2024.
Snetterton is the local circuit for the Anglo-Filipino, who lives near Cambridge, and who can expect a big cheer from his local fanbase at the track.
The #2 arrives in strong form, having taken third place in qualifying and second in the Qualifying Race at Brands Hatch, to secure a front-row start for Sunday’s opener, and then added a season’s-best fourth in a dramatic finale.
For team-mate Rainford, Snetterton was the scene of an overall Jack Sears Trophy ‘round win’ in what was only his third-ever BTCC weekend a year ago. The Horsham racer also bagged a pair of outright top-10 finishes.
WSR’s Snetterton record is a strong one with four pole positions and eight wins - including one-two results in 2022 and ‘24 - in the past seven years.
Daryl DeLeon, WSR, said: “I’m looking forward to racing in front of my home crowd and I hope the local support will be as good as in previous years. What’s great about Snetterton is that from the exit of turn two through to braking zone for turn six, you’re in this big bowl with spectators packing the banking on race day, so you feel a bit of the atmosphere in the car. Brands Hatch went really well from a speed point of view, and had Sunday been fully dry, I think two podiums were easily achievable – we were just undone by the weather. I think we’ll be just as competitive this weekend.”
Charles Rainford, WSR, said: “Brands Hatch was tough from the get-go, which we knew would be the case because we were so heavily restricted on boost, due to being second in the points. We’re in a very different situation now with the maximum use of the TOCA Turbo Boost, which should mean we have the best conditions possible to be on the pace as soon as we head out for practice. I’ll be aiming for pole and victory at a track where the BMW has done that time and time again.”
Dick Bennetts, Team Principal, said: “We expected Brands Hatch to be one of our strongest weekends of the year, but instead the weather on Sunday played against the strengths of our cars and we didn’t score as well as we’d hoped. That makes it doubly important that we maximise our potential this weekend. The BMW has been a strong package here for the past five or six years, mainly due to its excellent handling through the long, medium-speed corners so we’ll be looking to get both drivers onto the podium.”
