Rainford leads BTCC final test at Brands Hatch season launch

Charles Rainford was quickest as the British Touring Car Championship held its season launch and final official test at Brands Hatch on Wednesday.

The West Surrey Racing BMW driver’s best time of 47.102s on the 1.208 mile Indy Circuit – set in the second of two three hour sessions – was 0.317s quicker than NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish, who ended the day second in his new Ford Focus Titanium. It also beat his table-topping time from first practice of the Brands Hatch Indy race meeting last year by more than a quarter of a second.

Josh Cook ended the day third for Speedworks Corolla Racing thanks to Cammish's late lap, having gone second with 13 minutes of the afternoon session to go a lap after a trip through the gravel

While exact test programs for each driver and team were unknown, meaning the true competitive order remains unclear, LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing[ looked strong with their trio of newly built Audi S3s.

Dexter Patterson led much of the afternoon, usurping teammate Mikey Doble in the first hour, eventually finishing fourth in the session and the day's combined times. Doble topped the morning and went fifth in the afternoon and overall.

Ash Sutton – who did the most laps of anyone during the day, 133 across both sessions – was sixth for NAPA Racing UK, ahead of Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport pairing Aron Taylor-Smith and Gordon Shedden with former Toyota driver James Dorlin fifth in his Restart Racing Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance. Taylor-Smith and Dorlin were the only drivers in the day's combined top 10 to set their best laps in the morning session.

Adam Morgan completed the top 10 for Cataclean Plato Racing in the new Mercedes-AMG A35 ahead of Aiden Moffat in the third Power Maxed Audi, while top-10 runs in both sessions for Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley put him 12th overall for the day.

Sam Osborne was 13th for NAPA Racing UK ahead of his former teammate Daniel Rowbottom, now of Plato Racing.

Speedworks’ Max Buxton was 15th overall but ended the day in the barriers at Paddock Hill Bend, bringing out a red flag with seven minutes to go, thus ending the afternoon session early.

Lewis Selby was 16th in the final NAPA Ford, ahead of reigning champion Tom Ingram – who was briefly sidelined with an electrical issue in the morning – and his Team VERTU teammates Tom Chilton and Ricky Collard.

Collard was only announced as a Team VERTU driver on Wednesday morning and completed just one lap in the morning session, but made 79 tours in the afternoon, but did suffer an off at McLaren in the second session.

Daryl DeLeon, confirmed for a full season for WSR earlier this week and the pacesetter of the previous test at Croft Circuit, ended the day 20th overall, his fastest lap coming in the morning, while Nicolas Hamilton completed the runners in 21st for Team VERTU having the lowest lap count of all drivers of 52, 26 laps in both the morning and the afternoon.

While Wednesday marked the last of three official pre-season test days, teams are free to test privately until April 10.

The BTCC season begins next week on Donington Park's National layout with the opening three rounds of the season on April 19. The day before, the series will host qualifying, featuring a new format with a shorter qualifying race for the first time.

All races this season will be broadcast live on RACER Network.

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