Dan Cammish heads comfortable podium lock-out
Dan Cammish converted pole position into victory as NAPA Racing UK secured a comfortable podium lock-out in the opening BTCC race of the weekend at Croft.
Having scored pole in Saturday’s qualifying session, Cammiush was able to retain his lead when the lights went out and the field headed down to Clervaux for the first time and was never headed from that point on as he edged away from team-mates Dan Rowbottom and Ash Sutton.
The leading pair had both elected to run the quicker soft tyre with Sutton going with the medium option, and he kept Rowbottom honest throughout – briefly edging ahead at Tower on lap two before slotting into position and remaining third until the final lap, scoring a bonus point for the fastest lap.
On the run to the line, Rowbottom backed off to allow Sutton through into second spot – thereby giving the championship leader additional points to add to his tally.
Josh Cook followed behind in his Honda having held position throughout despite the best efforts of Jake Hill to get ahead, with the BMW on the soft tyre compared to the medium rubber on the Honda.
Hill had got ahead of team-mate Colin Turkington at Barcroft on lap one, with the Hyundai of Tom Ingram also getting ahead of the former champion.
Ingram would push Hill throughout and almost drew alongside more than once at the hairpin, with Hill holding on to take fifth ahead of Ingram and Turkington.
Stephen Jelley took eighth place ahead of Sam Osborne, who charged through the field on the soft tyre to take ninth, although a forceful move on Aron Taylor-Smith at Tower may yet be looked at post-race.
Taylor-Smith’s Vauxhall rounded out the top ten.
With all three tyre compounds being used this weekend, Aiden Moffat was the best placed driver to run the hard tyre at the first opportunity and ran inside the top ten for much of the race before being knocked back to P13 late on.
All 26 drivers made it to the finish, although Jade Edwards and Rory Butcher were both forced to pit with technical issues and Ronan Pearson pitted with damage after a clash with Dan Lloyd at Sunny.
