WSR squad explains Hill and Turkington’s BTCC Croft absence

Leading British Touring Car Championship team West Surrey Racing has explained the absence of Jake Hill and Colin Turkington from its Laser Tools BMW for the Croft round.

Reigning BTCC champion Hill has been suffering from an ear infection recently and, after feeling unwell in FP1, he was replaced by WSR’s four-time title winner Turkington for FP2.

Turkington, who has had to take a sabbatical from BTCC competition in 2025 due to commercial difficulties, has been with WSR all season, principally as driver coach to Aiden Moffat.

The 43-year-old Northern Irishman got some running in during FP2 on carryover medium compound Goodyear tyres, before Hill climbed back aboard the BMW 330i M Sport for the last few minutes of the session following a stoppage.

But Hill was then ruled out of the rest of the weekend following a consultation with long-time BTCC medic Paul Trafford, and the car was withdrawn from the event.

Hill reported that the disorientation from his infection meant that he was glad to stand down on safety grounds – not only for himself but the drivers around him.

Turkington, meanwhile, had taken part in FP2 to become eligible for qualifying should he be needed.

“He’s got a viral infection,” WSR team boss Dick Bennetts told Autosport of Hill. “He thought he would be OK for the weekend, but then he was a bit ill last night [Friday].

“He stopped running even before the end of FP1 [Hill sat out the last few minutes], and Colin did a fantastic job just to give Jake more time to get prepared for qualifying.

“Then Jake hopped in and did a couple of laps [in FP2], but he still didn’t feel right. He went to see the TOCA doctor, who gave him a few tests, but it was decided that he should not race.”

Bennetts explained that the current three-phase system of qualifying made it more difficult to substitute in Turkington, who had not driven the BMW since a Brands Hatch test in March.

“If we had a 30-minute qualifying session, we might have taken a gamble and put Colin in, but he hadn’t sat in a BTCC car for five months,” he added. “A 10-minute session would have been very hard, and Colin really likes to be prepared.”

Turkington, meanwhile, told Autosport: “I’m not down as a reserve driver but I had my kit in the car.

“Only half an hour before FP2 they said, ‘Have you got your kit?’, and I was in the car before you knew it!

Colin Turkington, Team BMW WSR BMW 330e M Sport

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

“Doing a few laps in free practice was important to give us an option going into qualifying.

“In the end I didn’t have enough time – I only did about four push laps on old medium tyres, and it was going to be a tall order going into knockout qualifying.

“It didn’t feel like it was enough for me to think, ‘OK, let’s give it a go.’ Having two free practice sessions would have given me a bit more of an understanding.”

While WSR’s spearhead BMW is missing from action, its two youngsters Charles Rainford and Daryl DeLeon – who both won races at Brands Hatch – showed improved form over recent rounds to make it comfortably into Q2, with both within 0.3s of Tom Ingram’s session-topping best.

Rainford qualified ninth, only 0.077s off the cut for the top-six shootout, while DeLeon was 10th, and set a time deleted for track limits that was just 0.029s from the top six. This comes after a mid-season test at the end of June at Snetterton for the WSR squad.

“We learnt something,” added Bennetts. “We’re hoping that there’s more to come, and the drivers are saying the chassis feels good.”

Even so, the BMW is still lacking straight-line speed. “We’re still down,” confirmed Bennetts. “We’ve all got more power than last year, but the other cars have leapt further ahead.”