After 12 months in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), Daryl DeLeon has finally picked up his first trophies over the weekend. The Filipino-British driver went on to finish 11th on the road at Knockhill Circuit, which earned him the top spot in the Jack Sears and Independents Trophy. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to keep the silverware after post-race inspection disqualified him from the final results.
The 2024 season has seen race-to-race improvements from Duckhams Racing with Bartercard, allowing Daryl to drive the #18 Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra León with more and more confidence. This is particularly important on a track like Knockhill that requires 100% commitment when going over its bumps and jumps – something Daryl clearly had as he regularly went on 2 wheels during Free Practice going into the chicane.
Although it looked spectacular, the 19-year-old later found out that it wasn’t the fastest way to go around Knockhill. And with some adjustments, he was able to lower his lap times further during Qualifying and get into Q2, eventually landing P11 on the grid.
Running on medium tires, however, prevented Daryl from putting up a fight in Race 1. He went on damage limitation mode as he struggled with understeer and dropped down the order. With his best efforts, he managed to secure 15th place and finish in the points.
With a fresh set of soft tires fitted on his #18 Un-Limited Motorsport Cupra León, Daryl was now moving forward in Race 2. But he had to get his elbows out as things got scrappy out on track. While battling for P11, contact with another driver pushed him off track and dirtied his tires, which cost him to spin out a few corners later. He then had to play catch up after losing several places in the incident to take the chequered flag in a decent 16th place.
Race 3 saw one of the best performances from Daryl all season long. A clean getaway gained him several positions at the start and later found himself in the thick of the action fighting in the Top 10. Despite all the scuffles, he held his ground to cross the finish line in P10, but was later relegated to 11th place for a false start. Still, it enough for him to win the Jack Sears and Independents Trophy, earning him a spot on the podium and bottle of champagne.
Sadly, his celebration was short-lived. He was forced to go off course during the race in avoidance of a spinning car and picked up damage on his #18 Cupra León. This would cause him to fail the post-race inspection and was later disqualified from the official results.
Despite the disappointing turn of events, Daryl’s performance at Knockhill gives him confidence heading to Donington Park on the 24th to 25th of August for Round 8.
Daryl DeLeon: “It was an amazing feeling to be on the podium and one of the best experiences I’ve had. But damaged I picked up during the race made my car too low and was disqualified from the last race. Really gutted, but the pace was in the car and we’re getting better and better. Picked up my first trophies, unfortunately I didn’t get to keep them. We’re keeping our heads up going into Donington in a weeks’ time. We’ll see but I’m confident for the rest of the year and fingers crossed I can pick up more trophies.”