DeLeon takes stunning first win in wild race two

The teenage Anglo-Filipino tin-top talent Daryl DeLeon took a sensational maiden British Touring Car Championship victory in a wild second race at Brands Hatch.

DeLeon was in the right place at the right time, on the right tyres and armed with a sack of TOCA Turbo Boost, when the race resumed following a safety-car-infested middle stage.

The West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport racer passed the sister car of reigning champion Jake Hill, then set the fastest lap on his way to pulling away for a comfortable victory.

First-race winner Hill had done a sterling job on the hard tyres he was compelled to use by the sporting regulations, and with the least TTB of anyone, to lead for the first seven laps, while Dan Cammish worked his way up to second in his soft-shod Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST.

Cammish looked in the pound seats when the field closed up under the safety car, triggered when Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra Leon pair Max Hall and Dexter Patterson took each other off at Paddock Hill Bend, the battle appearing to continue after they had alighted from their damaged cars.

But just as the safety car was returning to the pits for the restart, Cammish stopped on the track at Surtees, and was clipped by Mikey Doble’s Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra and took a suspension-destroying whack from the WSR BMW of Aiden Moffat.

That promoted DeLeon to second for the final restart once the rescue crews had finally loaded the stricken Focus onto their flatbed, with eight laps remaining.

DeLeon, on the soft rubber, sliced down the inside of Hill at Paddock, and then their team-mate Charles Rainford – like Hill on the hard tyres – made a muscular move on Hill at Druids.

Their war over the next lap effectively blocked the path of everyone behind as they slugged it out on the slower rubber, and DeLeon instantly built a huge advantage.

While Hill began to slide down the order, Rainford manfully held onto second until, with four laps remaining, Adam Morgan slipped through into Paddock.

Morgan, who “made a massive hash of the start”, went on to finish runner-up in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N, albeit 3.641s down on the victorious DeLeon.

“It’s really special,” said DeLeon, who started down in seventh on the grid. “Once I was in the lead I knew I had to get on with it, get on the power boost and build a gap.

“At the start of the race I was struggling with power-steering, so my arms are aching quite a bit, but luckily it didn’t get any worse.”

Ash Sutton fought his way up to third in his Alliance Ford, but didn’t have it easy because a fired-up Chris Smiley, going great guns, threw his Restart Racing Hyundai down the inside at Paddock mid-race, only to get totally sideways and have to concede the position. The Northern Irishman finished fourth behind Sutton.

Moffat in his WSR BMW stormed through the order from 20th on the grid to fifth ahead of Josh Cook (One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R), the fading Rainford and Hill, and the Alliance Ford of Dan Rowbottom, who was drawn on reverse-grid pole by DeLeon.

Ronan Pearson had an eventful race in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla – at one point he passed both Tom Ingram and Sam Osborne simultaneously into Paddock – before rounding out the top 10.

Ingram struggled on the hard tyres in his Excelr8 Hyundai, eventually claiming 11th.