Dan Rowbottom wins BTCC qualifying race at Donington Park

Credit: BTCC

Dan Rowbottom crossed the finish line to win the Saturday qualifying race and take pole position for race one tomorrow.

A small sprinkling of rain fell as the cars lined up on the grid, but it didn’t appear to affect the cars in any major way.

Tom Ingram held off Ash Sutton through turn one as Rowbottom remained in third. Charles Rainford had a cracking start as the pack began to fight down the hill.

Ingram and Sutton made contact several times throughout the first lap, as Rowbottom tried to barge his way through for the lead. Sutton then made further contact with Ingram as he looked to take the lead and span off at turn one, falling down through the pack and narrowly avoided his teammate, Dan Cammish.

Sutton would remain in the gravel at turn one, unable to get his car back on track and was forced to retire. The race stabilised with Ingram leading ahead of Rowbottom and Josh Cook. Ingram was then awarded a five second time penalty for a false start as he was out of position in his grid box.

Rowbottom then had fresh motivation to overtake Ingram as the pack closed in behind. Mikey Doble made a good move on Tom Chilton to move up to fourth at the end of lap five. Meanwhile, Cammish began to battle his way through the second half of the top ten after losing multiple positions avoiding Sutton at turn one.

Credit: BTCC

Ingram managed to build a gap of over a second as the race headed into the final few laps, as Rowbottom had Cook right behind him in the remaining podium positions. Cammish was then shuffled back as Aiden Moffat and Gordon Shedden pulled in front of him.

Battles commenced throughout the grid, but it remained the same at the front as the final laps were ticked off. Árón Taylor-Smith pulled off an excellent move down the hill on Ricky Collard on the penultimate lap.

Ingram crossed the line first, but would fall down to second by just 24 thousandths of second. Rowbottom would take the first BTCC qualifying race win, and therefore will start race one from pole position, a historic debut pole for Plato Racing. The top five was completed by Cook, Doble and Rainford. Doble was also the lead independent.

Tom Chilton had a solid race, picking up a sixth place start for tomorrows first race. Adam Morgan held onto seventh ahead of Moffat, Shedden and a somewhat struggling Daryl DeLeon.

Then came Dexter Patterson, Taylor-Smith and the returning Ricky Collard. Cammish fell to a lowly 14th ahead of Chris Smiley, James Dorlin and series rookie Lewis Selby.

Credit: BTCC

The running order was completed by Sam Osborne, Nicolas Hamilton, Max Buxton and the non-finisher of Sutton.

It was a successful first qualifying race, making for three exciting races tomorrow. Ingram will look to make amends after his penalty, and Cammish and Sutton will be fighting through from the back of the grid. WSR will likely look to find some pace overnight after a disappointing showing on Saturday, whereas it was an impressive showing from Power Maxed Racing with their new Audi’s.

Race one is due to get underway at 11:30am local time tomorrow, with action from the Porsche Carrera Cup GB, Porsche Sprint Challenge GB, Mini Challenge, British F4 and the Legends Elite Cup throughout the weekend.