Records are broken as O’Neill-Going leads the way after dramatic 2026 season opener at Brands Hatch

TCR UK Touring Car Championship – Rounds 1, 2 & 3
Brands Hatch Indy – 4th & 5th April 2026

 

A dramatic opening weekend of the 2026 TCR UK season at Brands Hatch brought three different winners and suggested the championship chase will be wide open.

Sixteen-year-old Jenson O’Neill-Going stole the show, becoming the youngest race winner in British tin-top history and finishing the Easter weekend as TCR UK’s early 2026 championship leader. But Callum Newsham and returnee Jac Constable were also race winners, while some of the other pre-season favourites had weekends they’d rather forget.

 

Qualifying

It was last year’s championship runner-up, Callum Newsham, who set the pace in qualifying aboard his JH Racing-run Hyundai Elantra. Familiar with both team and car, unlike many of his rivals, Newsham went quickest by almost a quarter of a second despite having three lap times disallowed for track-limits offences. He was far from the only culprit.

Second fastest was Max Hall (Hall’s Racing) in his newly acquired Honda Civic Type R FL5. Similar cars filled the next three places too. Third was 16-year-old Jenson O’Neill-Going in his Power Maxed Racing version, another 0.17s back.

Hall’s quasi-team-mate Max Hart (ALM Motorsport) had set the early pace, but could feel an issue developing on his car as others improved. With Newsham and Hall having climbed to the top of the timesheets mid-session, Hart had just gone third quickest when his turbo blew. He parked the car, which brought out a red flag, and although no-one else bettered his time in the restarted session he had his best time cancelled as a result.

That demoted Hart to fourth, although he wasn’t unhappy about starting on the outside line, away from Brands Hatch’s infamous startline dip.

Carl Boardley (DTR with CBM) was fifth, just 0.02s shy of Hart after not managing to set a representative time in the opening half of the session.

Brad Hutchison (Capture Motorsport with MPHR), whose CUPRA Leon was newly upgraded to the latest VZ spec, was sixth quickest, ahead of Rod McGovern’s similar car run by PMR. The Irishman was barely six tenths off the ultimate pace.

Returning champion Lewis Kent (SVG Motorsport) would have been a little disappointed to qualify his Lynk & Co 03 only eighth, while debutant Jenson Mason (Vannin Motorsport Audi RS3 LMS) and fellow young gun Harry Bloor (DTR Honda) completed the top 10.

BRANDS HATCH INDY QUALIFYING RESULT

 

Round 1 – Race Report

An opening race filled with incident, drama and attrition incredibly produced a winner who had qualified outside the top 10. That man was Jac Constable, returning to the series after two years away, who took his JHR-run Audi to an unlikely victory.

First to suffer heartbreak were Hall and Kent. Struggling to get his Honda off the line for the green flag laps did not bode well for Hall and he experienced similar trouble when the start lights extinguished. While those immediately behind avoided the stricken car, Kent was left with nowhere to go when McGovern jinked left. The silver Lynk & Co ploughed into the back of Hall’s Civic, both cars were out and the race was stopped.

Meantime, polesitter Newsham had got off the line but his clutch failed in the process. He toured into retire, unable to take the restart. Mason then made it four retirements before the race had even got going for real when his Audi also suffered clutch trouble and was pushed off the grid.

With the front row missing, O’Neill-Going and Hart effectively took over the mantle. But the teenager also struggled to launch his Civic, gifting Hart a free run to take a clear lead.

O’Neill-Going’s difficulties would have a knock-on impact for others too. As they darted around him, Boardley and Hutchison made contact, which would come back to bite both later on.

Through it all, incredibly, came Constable to jump from 11th on the grid to second in the race, ahead of McGovern, Hutchison, Boardley and O’Neill-Going.

Constable didn’t appear to have the pace to challenge Hart and was focused on keeping the rest behind while the Irishman built his advantage. But suddenly, there was another twist: Hart was losing power. His 5s lead began to rapidly shrink before he brought the car into the pits. While he re-emerged a few laps later, the issue – diagnosed to simply be a faulty crank sensor – was terminal. What looked set to be a triumphant return to the championship, five years after taking his last series victory, evaporated.

Meantime, Boardley and Hutchison had already fallen by the wayside. Boardley’s front-right began to smoke heavily after a splitter stay broke; Hutchison had been struggling with handling knocked askew and eventually a rear arm gave way. In both cases, they were likely the legacy of their earlier contact.

So Constable inherited the lead, under pressure from McGovern. O’Neill-Going passed both Boardley and Hutchison before they retired for what became third, then Bloor latched onto the train in fourth.

Constable may not have had the ultimate pace underneath him, but he was quick where he needed to be. McGovern had plenty of sniffs but was unwilling to make too risky a move with those behind waiting to pounce. So Constable withstood the pressure to record his seventh series victory; for him personally, it was his second in a row, having bowed out from his previous spell with success in the 2023 Brands Hatch finale.

Goodyear Diamond Award (for drivers aged 40 and over) winner McGovern was a strong second, which also earned him the Tom Walker Trophy laurels, for those without a previous podium finish. O’Neill-Going and Bloor also recorded the best results of their short TCR careers to date in third and fourth.

Eighteen seconds in arrears, Ricky Kerry (EDF Motorsports Hyundai i30 N) recovered from a first-lap moment at Surtees to finish fifth, ahead of the Audis of debutants Russell Joyce (JHR) and Barry-John McHenry (Vannin).

Gen 1 runner Luke Allen (Volkswagen Golf), Mark Smith (CUPRA) and Jeff Alden (Hyundai) completed the finishers in an attritional race.

 

BRANDS HATCH INDY ROUND ONE RESULT

 

Round 2 – Race Report

With the top finishers reversed to form the grid for Sunday morning’s race, Alden found himself on pole position for the first time, with Smith alongside.

Neither’s spell in the limelight lasted long. Alden suffered a rear hub failure on the formation lap but did not immediately realise its significance. After a moment negotiating Paddock Hill’s fast downhill right-hander that opens the lap, he toured in to retire.

Smith briefly took up the lead but caught out the fast-starting O’Neill-Going with his exit speed from the Druids hairpin. The youngster’s Honda tagged Smith’s ex-Laidlaw CUPRA into a spin as they charged down the hill, which would earn him a grid penalty and licence endorsement.

There was further trouble behind. As the pack approached Druids, Mason moved left and clipped Boardley’s car, tipping it sideways into Hutchison’s passing CUPRA. Boardley’s Honda suffered front-end damage, including a holed radiator, putting him out of the race. Two starts, two non-finishes was not how the two-time champion envisaged his return to the series.

The incidents led to a safety car, under which O’Neill-Going led the train ahead of team-mate McGovern and Hart – from rows four, five and six of the grid!

The leading PMR Honda made a good restart but McGovern in the team’s CUPRA was quickly despatched by Hart, Hutchison and then Newsham as he began suffering from a misfire.

O’Neill-Going faced pressure from Hart for the rest of the race but didn’t put a wheel wrong en route to an historic victory. At just 16 years and seven months, he smashed the record of current TCR Europe series leader Alex Ley as TCR UK’s youngest ever race winner. Father Jamie Going had tears in his eyes as he celebrated his son’s success on the pitwall.

Hart was happy to get his weekend back on track with second. The same could be said for Newsham in third who also recorded the race’s fastest lap. After passing Hutchison into Clearways on two-thirds distance, he began to close on the leaders but ran out of laps to challenge.

Behind Hutchison in fourth, Constable took fifth and Max Hall was reasonably happy with sixth having opted to save fresh rubber for the finale. McGovern brought his car home seventh for more GDA laurels, ahead of Bloor, Mason and Kent.

 

BRANDS HATCH INDY ROUND TWO RESULT

 

Round 3 – Race Report

Back on pole position for the weekend finale, Newsham made no mistake and dominated the race to scoop his first victory of the season by a margin of more than 4s.

Hall had started alongside the Elantra but again bogged down as the lights went out, albeit not as dramatically as the previous day. Hutchison grabbed second while O’Neill-Going charged around the outside to take third from eighth on the grid.

A sideways moment for Kent through Paddock Hill Bend baulked both Hall and Hart as they attempted to follow in O’Neill-Going’s wake, and they were then further delayed by an incident on the Cooper Straight. Constable clipped the front of Hall’s car and was sent into spin, with the chasing pack scattering in avoidance.

While they all survived that hair-raising moment, the race was soon neutralised when an accident befell Alden on the next lap. Something appeared to break on his Hyundai under braking for Druids hairpin – possibly the legacy of an off-track excursion a lap earlier – and the i30 N was pitched sideways into the barriers. It was a heavy hit but thankfully Jeff emerged unscathed.

After a lengthy clear up, the race resumed with seven and a half minutes remaining. Newsham made light work of the restart and was untroubled en route to his 11th win in TCR UK.

It was much closer for second. Hutchison was under pressure from O’Neill-Going, with Boardley and Mason also in touch. Eventually, Hutchison eked out a margin as O’Neill-Going increasingly had to focus on his mirrors. Boardley dived alongside the young gun at Clearways on the penultimate lap and the two Hondas traded paint on more than one occasion.

But Boardley made his experience count as he eventually completed the move and eased O’Neill-Going onto the grass approaching Graham Hill Bend on the final tour – for which the veteran was handed a written reprimand and two licence points by the clerk of the course.

His podium position finally salvaged something from a wretched weekend for Boardley. Hutchison, second, was also happy to end Easter Sunday on a high. Behind them, Tom Walker Trophy winner Mason and Hart benefited from O’Neill-Going’s last lap excursion to take fourth and fifth.

Despite dropping to sixth, O’Neill-Going still ended the weekend with a nine-point lead over Newsham in the early championship standings – and is 14 clear of Bloor, who finished seventh in the finale, in the Tom Walker Trophy section. Constable, who salvaged 10th after pitting under the safety car, is a further two adrift of Newsham.

Start procedure infringements earned 10s penalties for both Hall and Kent, dropping them out of the top 10. That promoted Rick Kerry to eighth overall and he took GDA honours too, ahead of Russell Joyce. McGovern’s non-finish, due to the recurring misfire, means it’s Kerry who leads the way in the GDA points.

 

BRANDS HATCH INDY ROUND THREE RESULT

 

Driver quotes

Round 1 winner, Jac Constable

“With the testing and everything that we’ve had go on this weekend so far, I did not think we’d be anywhere near.

“So I’m really, really happy. It’s nice to come back from two years off and win it.”

 

Round 2 winner, Jenson O’Neill-Going

“It was a really good race. I was a bit nervous trying to hold off a TCR Europe driver – Max [Hart] used to coach me!

“It means a lot. Alex Ley was the youngest ever TCR UK winner and now I’ve just become it, so it’s quite a cool feeling.”

 

Round 3 winner, Callum Newsham

“We knew we had the pace all weekend; we were just unfortunate yesterday.

“The car’s fast, I’m fast. Happy.”

Championship positions after Brands Hatch Indy event

 

Next time – Croft

The 2026 TCR UK Touring Car Championship heads north for the first time this year, arriving at Croft in North Yorkshire just under four weeks’ time, on Saturday 2nd May and Sunday 3rd May.

Croft always provides a great venue for Touring Car Racing, where we’ll be enjoying rounds four and five during the May Bank Holiday weekend.

After a thrilling first meeting at Brands Hatch over Easter, it’s clear that we have a serious season-long championship fight on our hands, and we’ll be joined at Croft by the massed ranks of Caterham championships.

You can purchase tickets for the next event of the 2026 season at Croft from their website:
https://croftcircuit.co.uk/racing/tcr-caterham

To find out more about the TCR UK Touring Car Championship, visit https://www.tcr-uk.co.uk/ for more information and how to get involved.

To learn more about the 2026 TCR UK Touring Car Championship Calendar events, visit https://www.tcr-uk.co.uk/2026-calendar/ for more information.