Written by Cameron Gale, Edited by Simran Kanthi
The weekend had everything you’d expect from a track like Thruxton. Great racing from start to finish, a few crashes, and two red flags which delayed the sessions and made the crowd a bit restless.
Race 1: Cammish takes lights to flag victory
Dan Cammish showed a dominant display in his Ford Focus ST (Napa Racing) to win his first race of the season. However, the race wasn’t that easy for everyone as there was carnage behind. The first bit of carnage to note would be on the first lap when Ash Sutton (Napa Racing) made it three-wide going into the Complex. Jake Hill (West Surrey Racing) was in the middle making it impossible for him to get any room. Inevitably, Sutton made contact with the BMW and sent Hill into a slide. Sutton then made contact with another car. This time it was through the Cobb left-hander where he sent Josh Cook (BTC Racing) into a slide, making him go across the grass and he lost some ground to the race leaders. Gordon Shedden (Team Dynamics), who qualified fifth, took advantage of this as Sutton looked to be going slow, and sent it round the outside of the fast Noble left-hander which moved him into second position.
Little by little, Shedden was closing down the gap to Cammish but the gap was too big to close down in the final few laps of the race. Ash Hand managed to secure his best race finish so far this season finishing in fifth.
The top 10 looked like this:
Dan Cammish
Gordon Shedden
Ash Sutton
Jake Hill
Ash Hand
Rory Butcher
Daniel Rowbottom
Michael Crees
Tom Ingram
Colin Turkington
Race 2: Cammish Gifts victory to teammate
After early pressure from Sutton, Cammish had managed to eke out a gap to the sister Napa-Liveried Ford Focus ST.
After a serious incident in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup involving two drivers, the second BTCC race had been shortened to 14 laps. As it entered the final stages of the race, Sutton was closing in. Exiting the first corner of Allard on the penultimate lap, Napa Racing told Cammish to let his teammate, Ash Sutton, by as he was in the chase for the title and they didn’t want anything interfering with that. So Cammish let his teammate by on the run-up to the Complex. This also allowed Sutton to claim the fastest lap for that race.
Gordon Shedden couldn’t make an impact in his Team Dynamics Honda as he dropped to third. Shedden soon found Jake Hill closing onto his boot lid in his West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport. When the two started battling it out for the last position on the podium, Sutton was able to draw away, allowing the Napa switcheroo to take place.
“If you need a teammate, DanCam is the man for it”, acknowledged Sutton. “He’s shown he’s going to support our campaign, and I hope one day I can repay the favour.
“I had to focus on the mix behind me but when Shedden and Hill started battling, I thought, ‘crack on’, and that’s when we reversed the positions.”
Shedden managed to fend off Hill which gave him third place.
The top 10 after a shortened race looked like this:
Ash Sutton
Dan Cammish
Gordon Shedden
Jake Hill
Rory Butcher
Tom Ingram
Dan Rowbottom
Josh Cook
Michael Crees
Colin Turkington
Race 3- Morgan beats Turkington in a BMW 1-2
Adam Morgan took his first win of the season after leading the reversed-grid race from start to finish.
Polesitter Jason Plato “got too much wheelspin at the start”, and Morgan used his rear-wheel drive BMW to his advantage and took first place almost immediately with Colin Turkington following him close behind.
Plato’s BTC Racing Honda initially fell to fifth, with Dan Rowbottom moving his Team Dynamics Honda into third and Ash Sutton moving into fourth.
Rowbottom tried to make a move on the outside of Colin Turkington into the Complex, but it didn’t come off and Turkington kept the position. Rowbottom compromised his run through the Complex allowing Ash Sutton and Jason Plato to overtake him round the outside at Noble.
The leading quartet then ran close together as the safety car was deployed. An attempt was made by Plato on the seventh lap to overtake Ash Sutton which resulted in minor contact.
A few laps later Plato ran wide at Goodwood and with marbles on his tyres, he skated onto the grass at Church corner forcing him to pit as the team needed to remove the grass from his radiator.
The top 10 looked like this:
Adam Morgan
Colin Turkington
Ash Sutton
Dan Rowbottom
Josh Cook
Tom Ingram
Dan Lloyd
Michael Crees
Ash Hand
Rory Butcher
Now let’s have a look at the top 10 in the championship:
Colin Turkington- 311
Ash Sutton- 305
Tom Ingram- 293
Jake Hill- 288
Josh Cook- 243
Rory Butcher- 218
Gordon Shedden- 209
Dan Cammish- 155
Stephen Jelley- 155
Dan Lloyd- 152
With a race weekend this crazy, you’d be crazy not to join us for rounds 25, 26 and 27 at Silverstone.