The British Touring Car Championship if officially underway with the first day of pre-season testing at Croft in the books. Fans flocked to the Northern Yorkshire venue to see the 2026 challangers take to the track for the first official test of the season. Lets recap a day of mixed condition running at Croft.
Morning Session: Ingram off to a flyer!
Reigning Champion Tom Ingram was clearly keen to pick up where he left off last year. He topped the timings with a lap time of 1:20.455, which broke his own qualifying lap record at the circuit by just over half a tenth of a second. His teammate Tom Chilton finished the morning running with the second quickest time and around two tenths off Ingram. Hyundai clearly havent lost a trick since last year.
Four time BTCC drivers champion Ash Sutton clocked 52 laps in the morning session on his way to the third fastest time. With his new Ford Focus to get used to, Sutton fans shouldn’t be too concerned to see him six tenths off the pace of Ingram. BTCC rookie Lewis Selby had the most laps of anyone in the morning session. Out of his 59 laps, his fastest put him in fourth place by lunchtime.
Josh Cook rounded out the top five in the morning session in his Toyota Corolla.
Chris Smiley was the fastes of the independant drivers in seventh position. His new teammate James Dorlin finished his first day behind the wheel of the Hyundai i30N fastback in 13th.
Charles Rainford and Daryl DeLeon were behind the wheels of the West Surrey Racing BMW’s once again. The pair look certain to be driving with the team in 2026, despite their lineup not being announced yet. The pair racked up 100 laps between them in the morning.
Plato Racing’s Adam Morgan and Dan Rowbottom finished the morning session as the bottom two. They were a long way off the outright pace and completed only 24 laps in total.
Afternoon Session: Shedden on top in mixed conditions
Gordon Shedden was the master of the wet conditions as he topped the afternoon session. Ingram continued his brilliant form from the morning and put in the second quickest time of the session.
Sutton had the third fastest time once again but this time was followed by a different NAPA Racing UK driver in Dan Cammish.
The Restart Racing duo had the fifth and sixth fastest times but this time it was Dorlin ahead of Smiley.
Chilton finished the afternoon session with the seventh fastest time and was followed by Daryl DeLeon, much improved from the morning session.
Dan Rowbottom had a much better session for Plato Racing post lunch. He set the ninth fastest time of the session and was one of the only drivers to venture out on slick tyres.
Shedden’s teammate Aron Taylor-Smith rounded out the top 10.
Birthday boy Sam Osbourne finished the days running with the 11th fastes time.
The Power Maxed Racing Audi A3’s finally took to the circuit with around half an hour left of running. Moffat and Doble combined for 10 laps late on with their focus set on more running tommorow. We are still yet to see Dexter Patterson out in his Audi A3 too.
Main Image Credit: BTCC
