New team and familiar contenders in the BTCC
Begins 18-19 April
Hill is seeking pastures new but other 2025 contenders are back
Photo by: JEP
There will be plenty to get your teeth into for this season’s British Touring Car Championship, even if the menu has taken some time to be created.
The big story has been the return of the championship’s all-time wins record holder Jason Plato (97 – that’s his number of victories, not his age!) at the helm of a brand-new team under the name of Plato Racing. ‘JP’ bounced into the Silverstone paddock at last September’s penultimate round of the 2025 series with news that, quite frankly, blindsided nearly everyone.
But, by the end of that weekend, the most-trusted of the grapevine custodians had added a few details: RML was developing Mercedes machinery for the project, with Plato’s pal Dan Rowbottom steering one of the cars.
That has indeed come to pass, with Rowbottom snaffling most of his crew from his stint at Alliance Racing – engineer Paul Ridgway, team manager Malcolm Swetnam among others – to be the first driver confirmed at the wheel of an A35 AMG saloon. Since then, Adam Morgan – another driver with BTCC race-winning experience – has been announced at the controls of the sister machine.
Of the ‘Big Three’ from last year, we no longer have 2024 champion Jake Hill, off pursuing a career in international endurance racing, but reigning title holder Tom Ingram continues with the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai team and four-time king Ash Sutton in the NAPA-backed Alliance Ford Focus equipe.
Plato’s announcement of his return to the BTCC as a team owner came as a big surprise
Photo by: JEP
Ingram is not one to change a winning formula – why should he? – but Excelr8 will need to extract more out of its i30 Fastback to keep him at the front.
Veteran Tom Chilton stays on as the ever-smiling wingman. At Alliance, there has been a change of shape for the Fords – can that propel Sutton and Dan Cammish into a better position than they enjoyed in 2025?
West Surrey Racing continues with the BMW 330i M Sport and we can expect Charles Rainford to excel after a great rookie season. And Josh Cook, Gordon Shedden and Aron Taylor-Smith in the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyotas will be a threat with the TOCA engine used from the off. Power Maxed Racing is also assembling a nice little team for its switch to Audi A3s.
So much for the runners and riders; what about the format? The big news is the addition of the qualifying race on Saturday afternoons. For a change, it wasn’t BTCC boss Alan Gow who put this forward, but amiable Alliance chief Pete Osborne – and the teams green-lit it.
If, like this writer, you weren’t sure about this, remember that it at least rids us of one of the rather unexciting free practice sessions, although it means a return to one-stage qualifying (albeit with the field split into two groups).
And… there’s no news on the tyre rules yet, but can we ditch the 2025 ‘top three in race one go onto the hardest compound for race two’ requirement please? Thanks! Marcus Simmons
Busier TOCA support timetables as guest series are invited again
Begins 18-19 April
Fan-favourites Legends guaranteed to entertain at Donington Park season-opener
Photo by: JEP
There was definitely some of the hustle and bustle missing from British Touring Car Championship events last year. Sadly, many of the support paddocks were decidedly empty following the relatively late decision to cancel the new TOCA Junior championship – which came after other categories had already locked in their schedules and left some distinctly lacklustre timetables for spectators.
Although there is still no new permanent addition to the TOCA bill for 2026, the events are due to be much busier again. A whole host of guest categories are set to be in attendance, all bringing something very different to the party.
Kicking off proceedings will be the Legends pocket rockets at the Donington Park opener in April. With their random grid draws, and the resulting constant battling throughout the field, the Legends have proven a real hit among BTCC crowds in recent years, so it’s great they get another chance to shine.
The guest slot is provided by the frenetic racing of the Caterham Seven 310R championship at Brands Hatch for event two – with the top-tier Seven UK category also making a trio of appearances later in the year.
Then at Oulton Park in June it’s the Classic Touring Car Racing Club that gets the chance to enjoy the limelight with its Group 1 tin-tops joining their modern counterparts in Cheshire. And one of the highlights is sure to be July’s Mini madness at Thruxton, with contests for the ever-popular Miglia and Se7en divisions.
Continuing the Mini theme, also new for 2026 is both the JCW and Cooper machines competing together alongside the BTCC for the first time at Snetterton in May. Among the other regular cast on the BTCC undercard, British Formula 4 is looking particularly intriguing. A host of newcomers will be seeking to challenge three race winners from last year – Tommy Harfield, Ethan Jeff-Hall and Dries Van Langendonck – who will all bid for title glory.
Meanwhile, over in the Porsche world, it will be intriguing to see how new Carrera Cup GB Junior Callum Voisin fares upon his switch from single-seaters. It all means there should be a little more for spectators to keep their eyes on this year – and that can only be a good thing. Stephen Lickorish
Retro tin-top fun heads up north
16 May
Super Touring star Anthony Reid won in 2022 in a 1998 Nissan Primera
Photo by: Mick Walker
New for 2026, Touring Car Rewind encompasses North and South editions at Oulton Park (16 May) and Brands Hatch (1-2 August), respectively.
While Super Touring Power, held at Brands for the past three years, was centred on celebrating the British Touring Car Championship’s 1990s high watermark, Rewind spreads the spotlight across a broader history of tin-top racing.
Off-track festivities, displays, parades and star names should still feature, and circuit owner MotorSport Vision has again teamed up with the Classic Touring Car Racing Club to provide the on-track content. But, in response to feedback, the festivities aren’t confined to Kent; northern fans will have their slice of the action too.
It’s Touring Car Rewind: North at Oulton Park that particularly catches the eye. The fast, undulating parkland circuit has always been one of the BTCC’s most popular stops and it will no doubt draw a large crowd for this event.
Locals will witness Super Touring cars in action for the first time since 2022, when period star Anthony Reid won in a 1998 Nissan Primera. More recently, the north-west’s own Jason Hughes has been the man to beat aboard his Vauxhall Vectra – and he let Colin Turkington have a go in the 2000 car last year.
Such machinery is expensive and fragile, with bespoke parts difficult to replace. But, supplemented by less hi-tech BTC-T cars of the early 2000s, they still make a stirring sight.
However, nothing matches 1980s Group A machinery for spectacle, as Tom Ingram discovered last year. The oldest Pre-’66 CTCRC set majors on incredible variety – from wallowing Yank tanks to the sideways style of champion James Ibbotson’s Hillman Imp. But Pre-’83 Group 1 tin-tops could be this year’s stand-out – and they get a second bite of the Oulton cherry in support of the BTCC three weeks later. Mark Paulson
New one-make Equipe bouts
5 July
Another huge entry is expected with the return of the Syd Segal Austin-Healey contest
Photo by: Mick Walker
It’s always important for club racing organisers to innovate and come up with new ideas. And that is certainly what Equipe Classic Racing has been working hard to do for this season.
As well as creating the UK’s new national-level historic racing championship – a rally equivalent is long since established – for pre-1966 sportscars and tin-tops (that is due to get underway at Silverstone at the start of April), its new British Sportscar Weekend at Donington Park is also an exciting addition.
One of the great joys of historic motorsport is the variety it offers – with major differences in terms of the look, sound and smell between the veteran machines, in stark contrast to the one-make format that so often prevails in modern categories. However, Equipe is organising some very special 40-minute single-marque historic contests in Leicestershire on 5 July and they are certainly to be welcomed.
After the success of the Syd Segal Austin-Healey contest at Silverstone last year, this will be back and shall celebrate John Chatham in 2026 with another enormous entry expected. There will also be pre-1966 Lotus, MG and Mini encounters, alongside an intriguing Jaguar vs AC bout. Who is not excited at the prospect of a large mixed grid of Lotuses storming into Redgate on a Sunday afternoon featuring a very different style of one-make racing? Stephen Lickorish
Surprise Rodin entry heads the British GT intrigue
Begins 25-26 April
Single-seater powerhouse Rodin Motorsport will enter a Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo
Photo by: Rodin Motorsport
British GT was not exactly quiet during the off-season because news was virtually dropping every week. Perhaps among the biggest concerned its organiser SRO, which will now take operational control of Ginetta’s three UK championships that form part of the British GT support package.
This is to help Ginetta focus solely on production of its cars – G40, G56 and prototype machinery – amid increased global demand, having established itself as a popular destination for young drivers; Lando Norris, Isack Hadjar, Freddie Slater, Kiern Jewiss and Tom Ingram are all Ginetta alumni, to name a handful.
But the on-track action is obviously what excites fans the most and, for this writer, it is specifically the shock sportscar debut of a junior single-seater powerhouse: Rodin Motorsport. The Surrey squad will enter a Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo in 2026, with drivers yet to be announced, in what is a real coup for the championship as Rodin has won titles across the racing pyramid.
Its drivers have won the past three GB3 titles, it is the reigning British Formula 4 teams’ champion and won F2 races in 2025 with former McLaren junior Alex Dunne. Whichever series it enters, Rodin becomes a success but achieving that instantly in British GT would be a tall order considering how strong the grid now is.
Shock driver changes have set up what should be an intriguing British GT campaign
Just last year, for example, there were five factory drivers taking part and, although not all will continue in 2026, the veteran teams have stayed put. In particular, Barwell Motorsport, which enters its final year using the Lamborghini Huracan before switching to the Temerario GT3. It’s impressive how consistently brilliant that team is and this season it’ll field its two-time champion Rob Collard alongside Hugo Cook, who was runner-up in the 2025 standings.
News of who is in its second car though is perhaps more of a shock, because series stalwarts Matt Griffin and Duncan Cameron are set for their first season together driving something other than a Ferrari. They finished 13th last year aboard the AF Corse-run 296, which Griffin said often struggled with reaching its top gears at the tight UK circuits – something for Rodin to bear in mind.
But the shock driver changes didn’t stop there, thus setting up what should be an intriguing campaign. Down at fellow series veteran Optimum Motorsport, reigning GT4 champions Jack Brown and Marc Warren will graduate to the top class with the McLaren squad.
This was a slight surprise because, until now, Brown was understood to have been content with remaining in the sub-class. However, since becoming the first two-time GT4 champion, while last year finding a co-driver who he can develop with, the opportunity was too good to turn down. So there are a lot of developing storylines already emerging for the new season, which starts at Silverstone on 25-26 April. Ed Hardy
Can Fairclough triumph in GB3 at the second attempt?
Begins 25-26 April
Fairclough (left) will be expected to use his experience to dominate in GB3
Photo by: JEP
Britain’s premier single-seater series is embarking on its second year with the radical Tatuus MSV GB3-025, and it has received a significant upgrade over the winter aimed at improving performance and reliability.
Remaining with Hitech GP for a second GB3 shot, runaway 2024 British Formula 4 champion and Silverstone Autosport BRDC Award winner Deagen Fairclough will be expected to dominate despite failing to live up to his favourite tag last season. Struggles with the handling traits of the new car were compounded by early issues and incidents, leaving him a long way behind champion Alex Ninovic.
A late resurgence helped Fairclough score a maiden win at the Monza finale and salvage third in the standings, and the 19-year-old will be aiming to maintain that momentum and utilise his experience to gain an edge over his rivals from the outset this time around. Internal competition may come from fellow sophomore driver Noah Lisle, who came seventh during an impressive but slightly inconsistent campaign with JHR Developments in 2025.
Abbi Pulling is another aiming to fight at the front in her second season after scoring one podium last year. She is continuing with Rodin Motorsport, which has guided drivers to title glory in each of the past three seasons. Also looking to spearhead the team’s challenge is Maxim Rehm – a winner during his debut at Monza last year – and Martin Molnar, who scored two victories and finished third in British F4 in 2025.
Dayton Coulthard, son of 13-time grand prix winner David, will be one to watch as he looks to build on his maiden GB4 victory
There will be a new team joining the grid, with ADM expanding from GB4 in partnership with British Superbike team owner Nitrous Competitions, and Arden is making a return after previously entering in collaboration with VRD Racing. New tracks will also feature, with the Red Bull Ring and Circuit de Catalunya both appearing for the first time as half of the eight-round season will take place in mainland Europe.
A new car helped GB4 achieve its biggest ever grid in 2025, and it is off to a positive start this year, with 20 drivers already confirmed for the upcoming season. That number is likely to grow further, thanks to the intriguing addition of five-time Ginetta Junior champion R Racing, which recently announced a single-seater expansion.
Dayton Coulthard, son of 13-time grand prix winner David, will be one to watch as he looks to build on his maiden victory at the 2025 Donington Park finale with Douglas Motorsport, as will KMR Sport’s sophomore Alex O’Grady.
A couple of notable rookies will also be looking to make their mark. Jason Smyth, who swept the board in Formula Ford 1600 last year by winning the United title, the Festival and the Walter Hayes Trophy, will also be racing with Douglas, while Elite Motorsport has promoted Fred Green to its GB4 line-up – after last year starring with nine wins en route to runner-up spot in Ginetta Junior. Steve Whitfield
Big anniversary at Mini Festival
22-23 August
Festival highlights include spectacular ‘Fastest Mini in the World’ contests
Photo by: Gary Hawkins
With Brands Hatch celebrating its centenary in 2026, there should be no shortage of entertainment to enjoy at the iconic Kent track in the coming months. Through its ‘Century of Power’ theme schedule, there are set to be plenty of flagship events and celebrations planned to cater for all tastes right through to November, whether it is for fans of tin-tops, classic sportscars or historic Formula 1 machinery.
One meeting that has become a staple of the circuit’s calendar in recent seasons is the ever-popular Mini Festival, and this year’s event has the potential to be the most memorable yet as a special milestone is marked this August.
The Mini 7 Racing Club is set to commemorate its 60th anniversary and, while plans may still be at the infancy stage at the time of writing, the club is hopeful of gathering a host of drivers and cars that have been part of its proud history since the first Formula Mini Se7en race was held at Brands in 1966. Parades and passenger rides are also anticipated during the weekend to celebrate the occasion.
On track, fans can expect the usual close-quarter racing that has become synonymous with the club over the past six decades, particularly if last season’s epic four-way Mini Miglia title battle is anything to go by.
Other Festival highlights should again be provided by the sights and sounds of the outlandish cars featuring in the ‘Fastest Mini in the World’ contests, while a strong pre-1966 Mini presence should be a factor again after a huge entry was spread over three races in 2025. Mark Libbeter
Gold Cup is among historic highlights
29-31 August
500 Owners’ Association will be racing at Oulton Park
Photo by: Mick Walker
After the UK’s wettest January and February on record, a long warm motorsport season can’t come soon enough. Among the ‘must see’ historic events on my reporting and commentary schedule, ground-shaking Can-Am cars at the Oulton Park Gold Cup – reverting to its popular August Bank Holiday slot – guarantee wow factor.
From John Surtees’s 1966 title with a Lola T70 Spyder, through Gulf McLarens and Porsche turbocars to Jackie Oliver’s chapter-ending 1974 Shadow crown, the slugfests left indelible memories with North American fans. I can already hear rampant wheelspin over the brow of Oulton’s Clay Hill… The contrast in size between the monsters and 250cc Superkarts of Karting Legends demands a pitlane photocall.
As a fan of ‘before my time’ 1950s Formula 3 cars, I’m delighted to be commentating at the 500 Owners’ Association’s races. Allied to the Historic Sports Car Club this term, the 500s will also be at Oulton, following Mallory Park’s 70th birthday celebration on 23-24 May.
A huge buzz surrounds Formula Ford too, with its 60th birthday looming in 2027. Historic (pre-1972) and Classic (pre-1982) groups always provide compelling racing. At Castle Combe, where the HSCC was seeded in 1966, the roaring Fordies may deliver the closest action of the club’s 8-9 August Diamond Jubilee event. Marcus Pye
Thriving Rali Ceredigion gets added spectacle for 2026
4-6 September
Rali Ceredigion – and the beautiful scenery in which is takes place – has become a big hit
Photo by: Ben Lawrence
Rali Ceredigion is unquestionably the biggest and most important special stage rally on the UK calendar. The 2026 edition, running from 4-6 September, promises to be every bit as good as the five that have gone before as some of the finest closed roads in Wales are used.
The Ceredigion story is a short and spectacular hit. First run in 2019, it was lost to COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021 and has since run four times, with it being a European Rally Championship round for the past two years.
While Britain continues to sit outside the world schedule, the ERC is the next biggest show in town and Ceredigion is a fantastic event to showcase UK rallying. From a base in Aberystwyth, home to a spectacular street stage taking in the seafront, the action then moves inland to the incredible roads of mid-Wales. The whole event is a fantastic advert for the region’s scenery.
Last year Jon Armstrong blew the doors off everyone to score an emphatic victory, which was surely a factor in his graduation to the M-Sport WRC team for 2026.
Of course, as well as the ERC contenders, the event is a round of the British Rally Championship and attracts a gaggle of quick local crews. Adding a further dimension to make the sixth edition even more special is the arrival of the FIA European Historic Rally Championship. We can expect a gaggle of spectacular historic cars, including more recent machinery, to take on the challenge of this glorious event.
It really is British rallying’s weekend in the sunshine – and I can’t wait. Paul Lawrence
This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the April 2026 issue and subscribe today.
1980s Group A touring cars top the spectacle at Touring Car Rewind
Photo by: Gary Hawkins
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