Daryl DeLeon ends two-day BTCC test at Croft with record time

WSR’s Daryl DeLeon posted a flying lap quicker than any touring car has ever been around Croft before, as the first official British Touring Car Championship test of the season concluded in Yorkshire.

DeLeon, 20, completed 162 laps of the circuit – the second most of any driver – and put in the fastest time of the two day test in the Wednesday afternoon session, lapping in 1 minute 20.417 seconds, to dip below the previous best of 1:20.517 set by Rickard Rydell in 2000, the final year of Super Touring.

Team Vertu’s reigning champion Tom Ingram had earlier topped Tuesday’s running, which was affected by wet weather during the afternoon running, hence the quickest lap times came in the morning.

But it was Restart Racing’s James Dorlin who ended up second fastest overall, after going quicker than Ingram on Wednesday afternoon, ending up just 0.027 seconds adrift of the pace-setting BMW.

Ingram was third as the top Hyundai driver, a mere 0.011 seconds further back, ahead of WSR’s Charles Rainford in fourth overall.

Tom Chilton put his Hyundai in fifth overall, just under a quarter of a second behind DeLeon.

The leading NAPA Racing UK driver was Dan Cammish in sixth, as the four new Ford Focus Titanium saloon cars were seen in public for the first time.

Four-time champion Ash Sutton was next up in seventh, ahead of Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley in eighth.

The test saw the much-anticipated public début of two completely brand-new car models. Plato Racing brought their two new Mercedes A35 Saloons to the test, with Daniel Rowbottom ending up in ninth overall having completed 94 laps. His team-mate Adam Morgan only managed 70 laps and was 15^th.

Power Maxed Racing also brought their trio of brand-new Audi A3 Saloons to the test for what was effectively a shakedown, although the team were hampered by limited running and propped up the timesheets, with Aiden Moffat completing the most running on 34 laps.

The top Toyota was Josh Cook in tenth, the last driver within a second of the overall pace, whilst Gordon Shedden in the Laser Tools Racing satellite outfit was quickest in the wet on Tuesday afternoon and ultimately 13^th overall in the combined dry times.

The official season launch event takes place at Brands Hatch on 8 April.

Combined session results (Tuesday & Wednesday sessions)

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	2		Daryl DeLEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport NGTC	162	1:20.417	–
2	132		James DORLIN	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	113	1:20.444	0.027
3	80		Tom INGRAM	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	139	1:20.455	0.038
4	99		Charles RAINFORD	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport NGTC	148	1:20.550	0.133
5	3		Tom CHILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	136	1:20.656	0.239
6	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	159	1:20.805	0.388
7	116		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	153	1:20.894	0.477
8	22		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	123	1:20.928	0.511
9	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	94	1:21.243	0.826
10	66		Josh COOK	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	134	1:21.255	0.838
11	50		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	161	1:21.465	1.048
12	15		Lewis SELBY	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	169	1:21.554	1.137
13	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	99	1:21.721	1.304
14	18		Senna PROCTOR	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	27	1:21.782	1.365
15	33		Adam MORGAN	Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	70	1:22.035	1.618
16	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	144	1:22.250	1.833
17	19		Max BUXTON	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	140	1:22.280	1.863
18	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	34	1:22.529	2.112
19	88		Mikey DOBLE	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	30	1:23.199	2.782
20	17		Dexter PATTERSON	Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	33	1:24.347	3.930