The second round of the 2026 British Touring Car Championship Season is upon us with action getting underway at Brands Hatch this Saturday. So lets discuss everything that fans should be aware of before the second installment of the 2026 season.
The Drivers standings post Donington Park
Ash Sutton sits on top of the drivers standings after a brilliant Donington Park weekend which started with him in the gravel! He claimed 61 points throughout the weekend. Charles Rainford is in second position with 43 points and Aiden Moffat sits third with 40. Dan Cammish secures two NAPA Racing Ford’s in the top four spots and Gordon Shedden rounds out the top five. Dexter Patterson sits sixth with teammate Mikey Doble just behind in seventh place. Reigning champion Tom Ingram is eigtht in the standings after a tricky weekend with Ricky Collard in ninth. Plato Racing’s Adam Morgan rounds out the top 10.
Brands Hatch a BMW stronghold in 2025
Last year on the Indy loop, no one could match the West Surrey Racing BMW’s for pace as they sweeped all three race wins. Daryl DeLeon and Charles Rainford claimed two of the victories while Jake Hill claimed the third and also pole position in qualifying.
So could we expect Rainford and DeLeon to be right at the front of the field for most of the weekend? Its certainly a possibility. Rainford showed brilliant pace and consistency in his BMW 330i at Donington Park which has landed him second in the drivers standings. It’s also a home race for Rainford and he is an instructor at the circuit. We also shouldn’t look past his pace at the BTCC Season Launch. The only taste of timed action we’ve had at the Brands Indy loop this year saw Rainford storm to the top of the times in record setting pace.
His teammate Daryl DeLeon didn’t have the best weekend at Donington Park. But a trip back to where he took his first British Touring Car Championship victory sounds like a perfect opportunity to bounce back. DeLeon will have the full boost allowance available to him too which could make him a favourite for pole position. So all signs point towards BMW being strong at the Indy loop once again.
Turbo Boost allocations come into play
As we now have an established championship order, all the cars will no longer be on a level playign field on qualifying. The TOCA Turbo boost allocations are designed to close the gap between the field and punish those who are succesful. Boost is limited down to seventh position in the championship. Everyone eighth and below will all have a full allocation to use in qualifying.
Ash Sutton sits on top of the standings after his double win at Donington Park but he will have a tricky qualifying session ahead of him. He will have just one second of boost to use on each of his qualifying laps. Compare this to the 20 seconds of boost the rest of the field will have to use and you can start to see the problems that Sutton may have. And with the Brands Hatch Indy loop being such a short laptime, 20 seconds of boost will be extremely valuable to those who have it. Unfortunately for Sutton, one of those drivers with the maximum allocation heading into qualifying is Tom Ingram. Ingram has four wins at the Indy loop so he should be right up at the pointy end of the grid on Saturday. So expect to see a potentially mixed up grid after qualifying!
Close battles in the Independant Championship
The Independant Drivers and Teams Championship’s are hotly contested so far in 2026. Aiden Moffat currently sits atop the drivers standings on 50 points. Charles Rainford and Gordon Shedden trail him with 47 and 46 points respectively. Dexter Patterson, Mikey Doble and Daryl DeLeon are also waiting in the wings, one good round could propel them into the top three!
The Power Maxed Audis, West Surrey BMW’s and Laser Tools Toyota’s all look incredibly quick so far this year which means the Independant Championships are definitely going to be a fascinating watch!
Tyre Allocation
Goodyear are providing the softer allocation of tyres for this weekend meaning the soft tyre will be the standard for this weekend. The Medium tyre will be the ‘option tyre’ and will have to run it for one of the three races on Sunday. If you finish in the top three in race one, you must run the option tyre in race two if you haven’t already.
We go racing once again on Saturday!
The British Touring Car Championship’s new weekend format sees us go racing on Saturdays in 2026. The format for the day consists of a singular Free Pracitce Session from 10:35-11:15. Qualifying for the race to pole gets underway from 14:00-14:35 with the Race to Pole starting at 15:05.
There was plenty of drama in the Race to Pole at Donington Park so its definitely worth tuning in to find out who will start race one the following day on pole position.
Keep an eye on our website and social media channels for updates and articles throughout the weekend.
Main Image Credit: Michael Jolley
