The BTCC young guns to watch out for after an Oulton Park breakthrough

On the omnipotence of two fabulous drivers is the latter-day British Touring Car Championship built. But many followers of the series also enjoy spotting its stars of the future.

This is difficult. TOCA Turbo Boost disparities, varying tyre strategies and reversed grids can make it hard to make comparisons, and that’s before you get into the characteristics of the different models of car, which may suit one circuit more than another. So while Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram are the two superstars, and Dan Cammish is able to run with them on his day, who are the young guys who might one day break into that top three?

Mikey Doble, Daryl De Leon and, if he can bust his never-ending chain of misfortune, James Dorlin all look sound prospects for the future. But the duo who ended last weekend’s Oulton Park round bathed in glory were Charles Rainford and Ricky Collard, first and second respectively in the finale.

It’s easy to be snobbish about reversed-grid races (hands held up in acknowledgement here…) but, as often as not, they are won by a driver who has faced a setback and bounced back to end the weekend on a high. Up until Oulton, the 2026 victors in the end-of-day thrash had been Sutton, Ingram (his only victory to date this season) and Gordon Shedden. Champions all, so we’re not talking about a midfield-at-best makeweight lucking in to a reversed-grid pole after plodding around to 12th in race two.

Rainford’s win – and Collard’s performance – was interesting, because each had started the day using the unfavoured hard tyre in race one, thereby eliminating that unpleasant prospect from the rest of their day. And that was because each had gone through trials and tribulations on Saturday, which they ended 13th (Rainford) and 12th (Collard).

This is exactly what the BTCC’s great modern-day champions have done in the past. Rainford’s previous wins – Brands Hatch 2025 and Snetterton a fortnight before Oulton – had each come in hot weather, conditions in which West Surrey Racing’s BMW 330i M Sport thrives due to its lightness on tyres. It was cold and, occasionally, damp at Oulton, and this was the first time Rainford had plucked a something-out-of-nothing win from a BTCC weekend. That was the kind of thing we might have expected Colin Turkington to do.

Rainford remained composed to secure a breakthrough win at Oulton Park

Photo by: JEP

“I don’t know about that quite yet – there’s still a lot I need to learn!” he bubbled after the victory, refusing to get carried away. “But I’m very happy. The pace is there. I’ve just got to work on how I can make my way from the back to the front like Tom and Ash can. At the moment that’s the big separator. The lack of boost I struggle with, and then the racing coming through the pack I struggle with. Once I’ve got those, I know I can try and put a title challenge together.”

What was impressive was Rainford’s composure. Twice the safety car emerged, each time latching Collard’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai back onto his tail. The second caution also begin eating into the laps of green-flag racing that remained, meaning that neither Rainford nor Collard could use their full allocation of TTB laps – and they had Ingram and Cammish looming into their midst.

“If the race was straight out to the end, it would have been a lot easier on me with my tyres not wearing as much as Ricky’s,” reflected Rainford. “When we had the first safety car I thought, ‘OK, it’s going to help him.’ But the second one I thought, ‘Oh no, here we go.’ But I managed to bring it home. What I’m very happy with is how I managed to pull the gap each time. That was fab, especially against a car as quick as the Hyundai.

"I’ve only got one race weekend to go if we can get to it, and I came over the radio and said it’s been an absolute privilege and pleasure to drive for Vertu and Excelr8. I just really hope we can bring in the sponsorship" Ricky Collard

“It was just tyre temp I struggled with [on the restarts]. I had a big moment out of Turn 1 [Old Hall] with general tyre temp problems, and had another slide down at Cascades. But after that, I’ve done enough this weekend to know those are the danger areas. Once I’d covered those off I was quite happy.”

Both Rainford and team-mate De Leon struggled with their BMWs’ balance on Saturday, and there was a bounce on the ripples of Old Hall that was never entirely eradicated. “The biggest improvement came in race two but I just got stuck in traffic,” Rainford explained. “I couldn’t show the pace that I really had – the thing was so ridiculously fast in race two, as well as in race three. Between those races we just tweaked it ever so slightly, and it was amazing.”

‘Amazing’ is a word Rainford does like to use. His fizzing effervescence is contagious and, in his second year of the BTCC, he’s beginning to build a following and become established: “Yeah, I notice little things, like people are giving me respect on the track, which is amazing [that word again]. I’ve built a bigger fanbase now – I can feel that. But I’m just me. We run a classic car shop, my dad’s a mechanic, I’m a driver coach, I’m just so lucky to be here and I’m just thoroughly, thoroughly enjoying myself. I guess the other drivers on the grid don’t like me too much…”

Rainford pulled off a modern-day BTCC comeback to win race three

Photo by: JEP

When asked about gaining a reputation for dishing it out on occasion, he replied: “You’ve got to, haven’t you? Otherwise you get pushed around. And it’s trying to do it within the rules. We have our guidelines and that’s what I’m trying to race to.”

Rainford’s mention of the classic cars brings us onto another enjoyable aspect of the Oulton weekend: the guest slot on the programme for the Pre 83 Touring Cars. Rainford’s dad Shaun, whose CCK squad is well-established in that arena, was certainly taking a keen interest. “We’ve had quite a few of those cars on our rolling road!” laughed his boy, who had been offered a drive in a Capri. “But it would just be too much on a day like this. We’re so busy anyway, and then driving two different cars I wouldn’t be as dialled in. Arguably I might not have won that race – I was absolutely dialled in. It was one corner, one braking zone at a time.”

Collard, meanwhile, raced in tandem all day with Rainford, on the same tyre compound as the BMW man in each race. The 2024 British GT champion has now finished on the podium at some point over each of the four weekends, with a second at three of them. In his case, Saturday went wrong with a track-limits offence at Lodge, which resulted in not only that lap but the one he was entering being scrubbed, and then he went off at Cascades.

“I was carrying nearly 10km/h more than Tom [Ingram, his team-mate] into Cascades, and it doesn’t feel fast to me because I’m used to GT3 cars with lots of downforce and aero,” he laughed. “I was asking too much of it really – it’s so different to a Lamborghini.”

Collard, whose father Rob is still racing in the British GT Championship with a Huracan GT3, is facing a continuing funding issue that will sideline him after the next round at Thruxton – unless the cavalry arrives.

“It was bitter-sweet for me on the in-lap,” he sighed. “I’ve only got one race weekend to go if we can get to it, and I came over the radio and said it’s been an absolute privilege and pleasure to drive for Vertu and Excelr8. I just really hope we can bring in the sponsorship. Every weekend I improve. I will do everything I can to stay in the seat, but at the moment it’s not looking good.”

Collard needs an injection of sponsorship funding to continue his BTCC campaign this year

Photo by: JEP

Ingram agrees: “He’s a great lad to have in the team – we have a lot of fun.” And there was even radio chatter involving Ingram’s and Collard’s engineers that there might be a swap of second place to see if the reigning champion could have a go at Rainford. “But realistically, with where we were with traffic behind us, we were always going to hold station, and I’m more than happy for Ricky to get a result out of it,” affirmed the Excelr8 team leader.

Talking of Ingram… Not everyone agreed with this column’s rant about penalties following the Snetterton weekend. It does appear that wires were crossed and Ingram receive a final warning on track limits in the Norfolk circuit’s final race. So his post-race penalty was justified. But the points about some of the other penalties issued over the weekend still stand. Not because the officials got anything wrong; they were correctly applying the rules. It’s more that there are too many pernickety regulations plaguing the sport.

But then they do say that sport is a metaphor for life.

Can Rainford rise to the top at Thruxton next time out?

Photo by: JEP