The second round of the 2026 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship got underway at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit today, with Restart Racing showing promising pace despite a challenging and disrupted Saturday under the series’ new ‘Race to Pole’ format.
With just one Free Practice session available across the day, track time was limited from the outset. Chris Smiley made the most of the session to finish 9th, while James Dorlin was unable to take part after suffering an engine failure on his out lap, forcing the team into a rapid turnaround ahead of qualifying.
Following the split qualifying sessions, which determined the grid for the ‘Race to Pole’, both drivers faced work to do on the tight and unforgiving Indy layout. Chris lined up 17th, while James started from the back of the grid after missing crucial running earlier in the day.
From the lights, both drivers made immediate progress. Smiley moved forward on the opening lap, while Dorlin quickly began carving his way through the field with a series of confident overtakes.
Dorlin’s charge through the pack was one of the standout drives of the race, gaining multiple positions and engaging in several close battles throughout, including a bold move around the outside at Druids before reclaiming the place again moments later. Smiley also continued to apply pressure in a tightly packed midfield, with track position proving key across the short, high-intensity race.
As the race reached its closing stages, both drivers had worked their way forward, with Dorlin climbing to 12th and Smiley to 14th at the chequered flag. However, a post-race five-second penalty for a marginal overboost infringement dropped Dorlin back to 18th, promoting Smiley to 13th in the final classification.
Despite the setbacks, the pace shown across the day was clear, particularly given the limited running and disruption earlier in the weekend.
James said:
“Okay, so rounding up our first Saturday at Brands Hatch Indy, it’s been a bit of a disaster of a day to be fair. I had an engine go on the out lap in free practice, through no fault of our own, so we lost all of that session.
The guys worked mega hard to get us back out for quali, so we did make it out, but there were still a few little bits that weren’t quite right, which is to be expected after missing that running. We managed to iron a lot of it out ready for the race.
We had a mega race, came through to 12th from right at the back of the grid, so the pace is definitely there. It’s just frustrating that without that time in free practice we weren’t able to be further up where I think we could have been.
There are positives to take, we made up a lot of places in that short Race to Pole. Unfortunately, we’ve now had a five-second penalty which has pushed us back to near the back of the grid for tomorrow, so that’s obviously frustrating.
We just need today to be done now, but the guys are working really hard and we’ll have a bit of luck at some point. Tomorrow’s a new day, we know the car can do it, so we’ll be pushing forward.”
Chris said:
“So that’s qualifying all finished at Brands. It’s been a bit of a frustrating day, to be honest. The car felt okay all day, and we ended up 8th in our group.
Unfortunately, looking at the lap times, if we’d been in the second group we probably would have been around 4th or 5th, but that’s not how the format works. It doesn’t go on overall lap time, it goes on where you finish in your individual group.
We started 17th for the Qualifying Race and finished 14th on the road. There’s still a little bit to work on race pace wise, but we’ve had a good look through everything and I think we’ve got a bit of a plan for tomorrow.
We’ve got three races tomorrow, so we’ll keep our nose clean, try to move forward, and get as close as we can to that reverse grid in race three to try and pull a result out.”
The results from the ‘Race to Pole’ set the grid for Sunday’s opening race, with Smiley lining up 13th and Dorlin 18th following the post-race penalty.
Whilst the results don’t fully reflect the pace shown, both drivers demonstrated strong race pace, providing a solid platform heading into Sunday’s three races, where the focus will be on moving forward and converting that speed into points.