BMW and WSR continue their quest for British Touring Car Championship success as the series moves on to one of its most iconic venues, Brands Hatch, this weekend.
As usual, the early-season triple-header takes place on the 1.2-mile Indy layout, which has been a happy hunting ground for the organisation behind the Team BMW and Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport BMW 330e M Sports.
“The Brands Hatch Indy circuit has traditionally been one of the circuits where BMWs have performed very well in the BTCC,” commented Team Principal, Dick Bennetts. “Most of the corners are relatively low-speed and that’s where the excellent traction that you get from a rear-wheel-drive car can help you most. We proved that the 330e M Sport is continuing that trend by qualifying one-two-three here last year and getting a one-two finish with Colin and Jake.
“At Donington we showed that when it’s fully wet or fully dry, the BMW is extremely strong in either qualifying or racing conditions. We should have scored more points than we did, but we have 27 races to make up for it, starting at Brands Hatch.”
Having clinched every one of their record-breaking seven consecutive BTCC Manufacturers’ crowns at the Kent track – albeit six of them on a weekend when the longer ‘Grand Prix’ layout was in use, the BMW has often proved the car to have here.
Indeed, WSR-run cars have achieved more BTCC race wins (16) and pole positions (nine), on the shorter loop than any other team currently on the grid.
Team BMW’s Colin Turkington scored his maiden BTCC victory on the Indy circuit 20 years ago and has five victories and four pole positions on the layout.
He is looking to put all that experience to good use this weekend as he attempts to build on a top-five finish at Donington Park and climb from his current sixth place in the standings.
The four-time champion from Northern Ireland steered his BMW 330e M Sport to pole position – as part of an all-WSR top three – and a race win last year.
Team-mate Adam Morgan is another multiple Brands Hatch Indy race winner. Having triumphed in 2016, he scored his first BMW victory at the track two years ago on only his second weekend driving a WSR-built 3 Series.
The Lancashire racer became the 20th driver to score a BTCC podium with WSR as he took second place in Race Two at Donington Park – a result that briefly put him into a shared championship lead.
Adam is fifth in the points and highest-placed of the Team BMW drivers while BMW hold third in the Manufacturers’ standings.
Stephen Jelley has enjoyed some of his most notable BTCC successes on the Indy circuit, including his maiden series pole position – also in a WSR BMW – in 2008 and a podium finish in an independently-run 1 Series in 2019.
An inspired call by the Leicester racer in Race Two at Donington to fit wet tyres on the formation lap paid off handsomely as he climbed from 26th as the lights went out to fourth at the finish.
Stephen will be looking for similarly strong results in Kent as he seeks to improve on his current 13th place in the standings.
Brands Hatch is Jake Hill’s local circuit, the Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport driver, who scored the first two of his now 32 BTCC podiums there, living near Maidstone.
As in 2022 he enjoyed an excellent start to the season at Donington Park with a second-place finish in Race One and a superb charge from 16th on the grid to fourth spot – with fastest lap – in a wet finale helping him to third in the Drivers’ standings.
Jake qualified on the front row on the Indy circuit last year and scored a second-place finish as part of a WSR one-two in Race Three.
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