Memories of Croft
The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship rolls into North Yorkshire this weekend (5-6 September) for the eighth race weekend of the 2026 season, and few venues on the calendar have as much history and character as Croft Circuit.
Last time out at the Donington Park GP, EXCELR8 Motorsport endured a challenging weekend, and a single podium for Tom Ingram was scant reward for a weekend blighted by gearbox and electrical gremlins, punctures and contact from rivals.
At Croft, the team will be looking to make amends and take advantage of the form it showed earlier this season, including during testing at the circuit before the opening round. Here’s everything you need to know before the lights go out.
A quick history of Croft
Croft’s story begins on the site of a former RAF bomber base, RAF Croft, which had launched Wellingtons, Lancasters and Halifaxes during the Second World War. After the airfield fell quiet, local enthusiasts began running informal club meetings on its runways and perimeter roads in the late 1940s, and by the early 1960s a consortium had bought part of the site with the intention of building a permanent racing circuit.
That circuit opened in August 1964, and its first meeting is said to have pulled in as many as 50,000 spectators, a remarkable turnout for a fledgling northern venue. The circuit quickly built a solid reputation by hosting everything from Formula 3 to rallycross. However, falling profits and the need for a total resurface forced the racing circuit’s closure in 1981.
Rallycross kept the flame alive through the 1980s and early 1990s, and Croft returned to life as a circuit-racing venue in the mid-1990s. The real transformation came in 1997, when the track was extended to its current 2.127-mile, 16-turn configuration. Part of the work also included the construction of new pits, a paddock complex, control tower and spectator banks, helping the venue become a genuine top-flight motorsport facility.
Croft and the BTCC
The BTCC’s history with Croft dates back to the late 1960s when Roy Pierpoint won the first race for what was then the British Saloon Car Championship in his Ford Falcon. After a four-year stint on the calendar, Croft then disappeared from the calendar before returning in 1997 as the headline event for the new-look venue.
After qualifying was a wash-out due to heavy rain, the first visit of the modern era produced a double win for Alain Menu, who took both wins in his Renault Laguna en-route to the championship title.
Since then, Croft has become one of the most enduring fixtures on the BTCC calendar, hosting the championship every season for nearly three decades. No driver has left a bigger mark on the place than Colin Turkington, with a haul of 15 victories being enough to earn him the unofficial title of “King of Croft.”
Racing at Croft has evolved considerably across those years. The earlier Super Touring and Super 2000 era gave way to the Next Generation Touring Car regulations that now govern the grid. Turbocharged power, adjustable aero and pushback torque have changed the way drivers attack the circuit’s mix of fast and slow corners, as has recent resurfacing work which has changed the characteristic of a racing lap.
What hasn’t changed is Croft’s knack for producing close, unpredictable racing, which is exactly why it holds such a special place in the affections of long-time BTCC fans.
Why is Croft such a challenge for BTCC drivers?
Croft’s reputation as one of the toughest all-round tests on the calendar isn’t accidental. The lap stitches together long, committed straights and sweeping high-speed corners with abrupt, heavy-braking chicanes and a tight hairpin, meaning cars need to be equally happy carrying speed through fast direction changes and braking hard from high speeds. Getting a setup that satisfies both demands, without compromising too much in either direction, is one of the trickiest balancing acts of the BTCC season.
Corner exit traction matters enormously here too. Croft rewards drivers who can get back on the power early and cleanly, particularly out of the tighter sections, because the following straights are long enough to punish anyone who’s left even half a car length on the table. Tyre management plays its part as well, with the circuit’s mix of loading and braking zones working the rubber differently to venues like Thruxton or Snetterton.
Overtaking chances tend to cluster around the heavier braking zones, where a driver willing to commit late under braking can make a move stick.
Fans should keep an eye on the Tower and Hairpin sections for some of the closest wheel-to-wheel battles of the weekend. But the flip side of a circuit with fast approaches to slow corners is that mistakes are amplified. A small lock-up or an ambitious dive can easily turn into a spin or contact, which is part of why Croft has traditionally rewarded rear-wheel-drive machinery and drivers with a delicate touch on brake and throttle.
For a team like EXCELR8, that means the emphasis at Croft isn’t just about outright pace; it’s about extracting consistent lap time from a car that has to do two very different jobs within the same 2.127-mile lap.
Croft’s most memorable BTCC moments
Croft’s return to the BTCC calendar in 1997 gave the series an instant story to tell, with Alain Menu’s opening weekend double setting the tone for a venue that has rarely disappointed since. Over the years, the circuit has thrown up championship-shaping results as often as it has thrown up surprises, rewarding form drivers one year and underdogs the next.
No name is more synonymous with Croft than Colin Turkington’s. His record haul of 15 victories was assembled gradually over more than a decade. It is a reminder of how often the BMW ace found something extra whenever the series rolled into North Yorkshire.
Team EXCELR8 at Croft
EXCELR8 Motorsport’s story at Croft is part of a wider narrative for the Suffolk-based squad, one built on turning underdog status into race-winning pace across almost every corner of the BTCC calendar. Since its win at Thruxton, last season, the team has now won at every venue with four previous victories at Croft including a 2022 double for Dan Lloyd and a win apiece for Tom Chilton and Tom Ingram over the last two seasons.
EXCELR8 comes into the 8th round of the championship off the back of a bruising Donington Park GP, where mechanical gremlins and contact from rivals left Ingram’s lone podium as the only real return from a difficult two days. Chilton, Ricky Collard and Nicolas Hamilton all showed flashes of genuine pace without the results to match, and the team will be desperate to turn that underlying speed into points at a circuit where its Hyundai i30 Fastback Ns have previously gone well.
Ingram can lean on his recent form and has already proven the car can win at Croft, plus he holds the lap record having set a new benchmark in both qualifying and the races last year. However, the priority this weekend is translating that historical competitiveness into a result that actually reflects it. This weekend, momentum matters more than ever as the team is under increased pressure from rivals for second in the championship. Team VERTU must seize the opportunity to bounce back.
What can EXCELR8 Motorsport take from its previous Croft visits?
Beyond the raw results, EXCELR8’s history at Croft offers some useful pointers for this weekend. The team’s past competitiveness there suggests its cars are capable of finding the balance the circuit demands. They need to be strong through the fast sections without giving up too much in the tighter, technical corners, which is no small feat given how few teams manage to nail both.
The bigger question is whether the team can convert that potential into consistency across all three Sunday races, something that eluded them at Donington Park. Qualifying will matter enormously at a circuit where overtaking, while possible, still carries real risk, and getting drivers into clean track position early looks like the priority. Tyre management across three races in a single day will also be crucial, particularly if temperatures are on the warmer side for early September.
Taking into account the team’s current form, a strong Croft weekend is a genuine opportunity to turn things around. Ingram doesn’t need a miracle to consolidate his position in the standings; he needs the kind of clean, mistake-free weekend that has been in short supply over the last few rounds. If EXCELR8 can find form at a circuit where the team has previously shown genuine pace, Croft could be the turning point the campaign needs.
Three things to watch at Croft
1. The championship battle
The fight for second place in the championship is set to heat up with Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram just five points clear of his closest rival. This means that with just three rounds remaining, points dropped at Croft could prove very costly.
2. The battles around Croft
Expect the closest racing around the circuit’s heavier braking zones, where committed late-braking moves can make the difference between a place gained and a place lost. Croft’s mix of fast approach speeds and technical corners tends to bunch cars together on braking, creating natural flashpoints for wheel-to-wheel action and giving strategists plenty to think about when it comes to tyre choice and track position across the weekend’s three races.
3. Can EXCELR8 continue its strong form?
Given the team’s recent pace and the Hyundais’ previous form at Croft, the circuit looks like a genuine chance for EXCELR8 to bounce back. Tom Ingram will be the one to watch given his championship position. However, his team-mates have all shown they can extract results when the car is working, and a clean weekend across the board would be exactly what the team needs. A successful Croft would mean strong points across multiple drivers, a return to the podium, and real momentum heading into the season’s final stretch.
Croft Circuit: a fitting stage for the run-in
Croft Circuit’s journey from a wartime airfield to one of the BTCC’s most respected and demanding venues is matched only by the stories it has produced since the series arrived there in 1997. Its blend of fast, flowing sections and unforgiving technical corners has made it a true test of car and driver alike.
For EXCELR8 Motorsport, this weekend arrives at a pivotal moment. With the title all but secured at the top, the fight for second and third in the standings is intensifying. In this situation, every point matters, so the pace shown earlier on in the season could come in handy.
Croft has a habit of rewriting form books and producing moments fans remember for years. With the championship picture this tight and EXCELR8 hungry to bounce back, round 8 of the 2026 BTCC could be memorable. Follow the team’s progress across the weekend as Team VERTU looks to turn Croft’s history of highs into another c