Dan Cammish questions track limits protocols

Dan Cammish has questioned the way in which track limits are being monitored at Silverstone after multiple drivers lost laps during Saturday’s running ahead of the penultimate rounds of the BTCC season.

Cammish – who switches into the car that Ollie Jackson used to win at Silverstone in 2020 following the extensive damage sustained by his own car at Donington Park – lost no fewer than three timed laps during the top ten shootout at Silverstone, one of which would have seen him gain an additional place on the grid.

Despite Q2 running for just ten minutes, no fewer than 17 laps were disallowed for track limits, following on from 45 being removed in the 30 minute long Q1 session.

A number of warnings and black flags had earlier been handed out in free practice, with Cammish stating his belief that the way in which track limits are being monitored – largely on the exit of Copse – needed to be looked at.

“The margins at Silverstone are so small and I had three laps disallowed but didn’t really know why,” he said. “The simple fact is that the margins are so tight that a judge of fact can’t tell from 200m away if you’ve exceeded track limits and it means you end up having to try and drive within yourself more in order to avoid getting a penalty.

“How do they plan to spot it tomorrow when all the cars are together, or will just the first one get picked? I know the rules have changed but in the past, we could use the green on the edge of the kerbs at turn one which gave you a bit of margin if you ran wide but now we don’t have that, and Copse isn’t the kind of corner where you can just back off; you’ve got to be on the limit. We can still use the green at Luffield, so why not at turn one?

“I know others have had complaints about track limits previously but this is the first time I’ve really felt strongly about it. It’s not just because I lost a place on the grid, but more the principle of how the rules are applied, and how we can improve things going forwards.”