Three drivers began their seasons in emphatic style by claiming a hat-trick of wins as the British Touring Car support categories commenced their campaigns at Donington Park last weekend.
There was some thrilling racing and among the stars was a McLaren protege grabbing the early British Formula 4 initiative.
McLaren junior leads the way in British F4
Among a 31-car British F4 entry, featuring five drivers backed by F1 teams, McLaren junior Dries Van Langendonck emerged on top as the 2026 season kicked off at Donington Park.
But for a post-race penalty for contact, the 15-year-old Belgian would have left the East Midlands venue with nearly double the points of his closest rivals having led every lap of both conventional-grid races. As it was, the Rodin Motorsport driver had to settle for a 15-point advantage over Virtuosi Racing’s Joseph Smith, who inherited victory in the finale, and Mercedes junior Ethan Jeff-Hall.
Formula Winter Series champion Van Langendonck controlled the opener from pole position, underlining his liking for the circuit where he won on debut last summer. Jeff-Hall (Argenti Motorsport) may have pipped the winner to fastest lap and closed to within a second at the chequered flag, but Van Langendonck never looked under serious threat.
“I was managing it at the end,” explained the winner, “just trying to keep the tyres in a good window.”
Jeff-Hall and Theo Palmer (Hitech) each had to wait nearly 24 hours for their podiums to be confirmed when a series of rogue track-limits penalties, two for Jeff-Hall alone, were rescinded.
The sun shone on Smith as he profited from Van Langendonck and Palmer’s race-three clash
Photo by: JEP
The weekend’s flash point came in Sunday’s finale as Van Langendonck and Palmer, who qualified second, tangled when 5s up the road from Jeff-Hall and Smith. Palmer lunged for the lead at Redgate but, as the door closed, his left-front banged into Van Langendonck’s sidepod. While the leader escaped largely unscathed, Palmer spun into the gravel.
A backmarker buffer under the resulting safety car removed any pressure from Van Langendonck at the restart. He reeled off the remaining laps for victory but acknowledged he wasn’t as comfortable as the day before. “I didn’t quite have the pace for some reason,” he admitted. “We’ll look into that.”
The car in Van Langendonck’s mirrors in the closing stages belonged to Smith after the backmarker confusion helped him get a run on Jeff-Hall at the restart. Regardless of the assist, it took guts to complete the manoeuvre through the Craner Curves. It was arguably a move worthy of victory, which is what it became when Van Langendonck was censured, dropping to fourth behind Red Bull Junior Scott Kin Lindblom (Hitech).
In between times, Van Langendonck’s Rodin team-mate Ethan Lennon bounced back from a Saturday tangle with Adam Al Azhari (Hitech) to win an interrupted reversed-grid race. Van Langendonck’s charge from 12th to fourth included a statement pass of Jeff-Hall followed by a robust defence against the Briton’s attempted retaliation.
This McLaren versus Mercedes battle could run and run, but points leader Van Langendonck is in confident mood heading to Brands Hatch next month. “It’s my favourite track,” he warned.
Marshall kicks off Cayman campaign in style
Three wins for Team Parker driver Marshall as he continued good form from the end of last year
Photo by: JEP
Joe Marshall, a close runner-up in last year’s Porsche Sprint Challenge GB, opened his 2026 account with a trio of wins.
But there were signs that the Team Parker Racing driver could face a tough battle for the title as the season progresses – from within his own camp as well as opposition squads.
Xentek Motorsport’s Sam Harvey, fourth in the 2025 points, led the external opposition at Donington. He qualified on pole and led all but two laps of the opener despite struggling for rear-end grip.
Marshall had qualified only fourth but jumped Matthew Kyle-Henney (Clean Racing) off the line, then rounded new team-mate Josh Rogers at Redgate a few laps later. While hounding Harvey, Marshall kept finding his advantage through Coppice onto the long back straight thwarted by yellow flags approaching the chicane. Eventually, on the penultimate tour, he made his move at Coppice itself, completing it before the yellow zone.
Harvey won race two on the road after hooking up a near-perfect getaway. Too good, according to the judges, who slapped him with a 5s penalty – allowing Marshall to simply shadow him to the flag.
Harvey in fact successfully appealed his penalty but only replaced it with another. Perhaps frustrated by a mid-race safety car that closed up the pack, he pushed a little too hard in the closing laps and was pinged for track-limits abuse, dropping to fifth.
That also left Harvey down the grid for race three, which was something of a non-event due to a safety car and red flag. Behind winner Marshall, Oliver Cottam (Graves Motorsport) achieved his best finish after passing Rogers for second at the start.
Rogers, a professional sim racer, impressed by outqualifying team-mate Marshall and scoring three podiums on his real-world debut. Like Harvey, he could yet prove to be a thorn in the side of the hat-trick hero.
Ovenden bakes in his Mini advantage
Reigning champion got his title defence off to a flier
Photo by: JEP
Another man celebrating a triple success was reigning Mini Challenge champion Tom Ovenden. The Excelr8 Motorsport racer’s hat-trick was as dominant as they come in one-make tin-top racing. He scooped a maximum points haul, including pole position and fastest lap bonuses.
Excelr8 filled five of the top six places in qualifying – only Mannpower Motorsport’s Harry Hickton preventing a clean sweep in fourth – but, beyond Ovenden, the perennial pacesetting team didn’t have things entirely its own way in the races.
While Hickton largely came off worst from some feisty exchanges – managing only one top-six finish – Pro Alloys Racing pair Max Edmundson and Sam Gornall claimed two podiums apiece. The duo showcased their skills with an entertaining battle in the finale, getting the better of Excelr8 pair Olivier Algieri and Nathan Edwards in the process.
Perhaps the biggest indicator of Ovenden’s superiority was the light work he made of progressing from seventh in the reversed-grid race, hitting the front in just over five laps.
“It’s weird, some weekends you’re trying so hard to pull results out and you’re just struggling,” he said. “This weekend’s been an absolute dream. Massive thank you to Excelr8 Motorsport – they’ve given me a rocket ship.”
Legends champion Reads the race perfectly to bag hat-trick
Read was another reigning champion enjoying a strong weekend
Photo by: JEP
Supreme racecraft earned reigning champion Tyler Read three wins in six races as the motorcycle-engined, five-eighths scale Legends Cars enthralled the packed spectator banks.
The weekend didn’t start well for Read who lost half a lap in the Redgate gravel after a mid-pack tangle in Saturday’s opening exchanges. But he won the day’s 10-lap final and repeated the feat on Sunday having also won the second day’s opening heat.
On each occasion, Read timed his moves to perfection, snatching victory into the final chicane – except when that was covered by yellow flags, when he instead mugged race-two winner Andy Bird earlier on the final lap at McLeans.
Three-time Toyota MR2 champion Aaron Cooke, who has joined the field full-time after sampling the series at last year’s American SpeedFest, beat Read at his own game in the penultimate thrash. He pipped the champion by just 0.007s having also won Saturday’s opening race.
But the finale produced the best finish of all. Five cars fanned out in a mad scramble to the line with Read prevailing from Oli Schlup after the pair had been chased down by Cooke, Luke Simmons and Chris Needham. The quintet were separated by less than a tenth.
Voisin lays down a Carrera Cup marker
Single-seater convert Voisin stormed clear in the opener
Photo by: JEP
In the first of his two years as the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Junior, Callum Voisin set his stall out as the driver to beat with victory in the 2026 season opener. But it is sophomore driver Will Jenkins who leads the early standings after finishing second in both races.
Jenkins set the qualifying pace – pocketing two points in the process – among a relatively thin field in the British series’ final year running the current 992-based car. The Team Parker Racing driver then led the first two thirds of race one before Century Motorsport’s Voisin dived ahead at Redgate.
The single-seater convert, a FIA F3 race winner, pulled clear over the remaining laps to win by almost 5s and banish lingering frustration over a lack of improvement on his second set of tyres in qualifying.
“To bounce back like this today is the best way to start my Carrera Cup career,” enthused Voisin, who is also contesting a dual campaign in Italy.
Jenkins beat Voisin to maximum points in the reversed-grid race – in which Pro-Am class runner Ollie Jackson took a maiden overall win – as the pair both overhauled Max Coates and Isaac Phelps, who ran wide at the start.
Pro-Am contender Jackson defeated Jenkins for outright victory in race two
Photo by: JEP
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– The Autosport.com Team
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