Daryl DeLeon closes out Croft BTCC testing at top of the times
Daryl DeLeon closed out the final day of official British Touring Car Championship testing at Croft at the top of the times after pipping James Dorlin by just 0.027s late on.
DeLeon – who is yet to be announced as a West Surrey Racing driver for the 2026 season – set a best time of 1:20.417 during the afternoon session to walk away with the pre-season bragging from the North Yorkshire venue.
Restart Racing’s Dorlin enjoyed an impressive outing in his Hyundai i30N as he surged to the summit early in the afternoon after bettering NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton, who had set the benchmark time in the morning.
On combined times, Charles Rainford – another driver representing West Surrey Racing but yet to be formally announced – finished third while the Ford Focus duo of Dan Cammish and Sutton completed the top five.
Chris Smiley reinforced the pace of the Restart Racing Hyundais by finishing sixth, narrowly ahead of Tom Chilton.
After working through a methodical programme yesterday, Plato Racing turned the wick on day two with Dan Rowbottom being the best placed of the Mercedes-AMG A35 Saloons; he ended the day in eighth.
Completing the top ten was the lead Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Josh Cook and reigning champion Tom Ingram, who had initially been the driver to beat on day one of testing.
Power Maxed Racing enjoyed an encouraging day on-track with all three Audi S3 Saloons of Mikey Doble, Aiden Moffat and Dexter Patterson breaking cover. Between the three, they completed a total of 87 laps.
Attention now turns to the BTCC Season Launch, which takes place at Brands Hatch on April 8.
It is believed that the two vacant EXCELR8 Motorsport cars and one remaining BMW of West Surrey Racing will run at the Kent venue. There is yet to be any confirmation on the status of One Motorsport however.
