The local man got the jump at the lights, and headed team-mates Dan Rowbottom and Ash Sutton throughout for a Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST 1-2-3.
Second and third positions swapped on the final lap, when Rowbottom allowed championship leader Sutton – who had also gained the point for fastest lap – into the runner-up position.
The three Fords were scarcely troubled. Cammish and front-row partner Rowbottom took the start on the soft Goodyear tyres, on a weekend where all three compounds must be used across the trio of races.
Sutton was on the medium tyres, and dived down the inside of Rowbottom at Tower on the second lap, only to run wide on exit and allow the bearded Midlander to reclaim the position at the Jim Clark Esses.
Sutton remained hard on the bumper of the sister Ford of Rowbottom until he gained the place on the final lap.
“I missed a load of gears on the last lap on the back straight; what can you do?” explained a tongue-in-cheek Rowbottom.
“It was a weird touring car race,” related Cammish. “Usually you’re in a battle so you’re looking forward to the end of the race, but that was a bit more sedate.
“I’m happy with races like that – I wish they were all like that…”
Josh Cook was the only other competitor within the top seven on the grid to use medium Goodyears instead of the softs, and as such his One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R looked vulnerable to the heavy artillery behind, comprising the West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sports of Jake Hill and Colin Turkington, and Tom Ingram’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N.
Ingram passed Turkington into Clervaux on the second lap to grab sixth place, and for most of the race he looked more of a threat to Hill than the Kentishman did to Cook, who plotted a steady defensive course whenever he needed to.
Reigning champion Ingram made a couple of attempts at the hairpin, drawing alongside Hill, but in the end it was he who almost lost a position on the final lap.
Turkington charged alongside the Hyundai into the complex, but Ingram was able to defend the line at the hairpin and grabbed sixth behind Cook and Hill.
Stephen Jelley took a lonely eighth in his medium-shod BMW once Ingram had passed him on the opening lap.
There was then a yawning chasm back to the next bunch, with Aiden Moffat, the leading starter on hard-compound Goodyears, doing a sterling job of fending off the baying mob behind in his One Honda.
The Scot, who usually shines at Croft, held on superbly until the 12th lap of 15, when Sam Osborne slipped through with his soft-tyred Motorbase Ford to take ninth.
Eventually Moffat fell to 13th, and it was Aron Taylor-Smith who completed the top 10 in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.
BTCC Croft - Race 1 results (15 laps)
| Cla | Driver | Car / Engine | Time | Gap |
| 1 | Dan Cammish | Ford | 21m00.551s | |
| 2 | Ash Sutton | Ford | 21m01.268s | 0.717s |
| 3 | Dan Rowbottom | Ford | 21m01.878s | 1.327s |
| 4 | Josh Cook | Honda | 21m06.073s | 5.522s |
| 5 | Jake Hill | BMW | 21m06.458s | 5.907s |
| 6 | Tom Ingram | Hyundai | 21m07.675s | 7.124s |
| 7 | Colin Turkington | BMW | 21m07.954s | 7.403s |
| 8 | Stephen Jelley | BMW | 21m11.033s | 10.482s |
| 9 | Sam Osborne | Ford | 21m26.680s | 26.129s |
| 10 | Árón T.-Smith | Vauxhall/TOCA | 21m29.285s | 28.734s |
| 11 | Ricky Collard | Toyota | 21m29.730s | 29.179s |
| 12 | Dan Lloyd | Cupra/TOCA | 21m30.413s | 29.862s |
| 13 | Aiden Moffat | Honda | 21m32.439s | 31.888s |
| 14 | Mikey Doble | Vauxhall/TOCA | 21m33.033s | 32.482s |
| 15 | Tom Chilton | Hyundai | 21m33.304s | 32.753s |
| 16 | Andrew Watson | Vauxhall/TOCA | 21m33.526s | 32.975s |
| 17 | Dexter Patterson | Cupra/TOCA | 21m34.666s | 34.115s |
| 18 | George Gamble | Toyota | 21m35.255s | 34.704s |
| 19 | Adam Morgan | BMW | 21m35.696s | 35.145s |
| 20 | Jack Butel | Cupra/TOCA | 21m38.053s | 37.502s |
| 21 | Michael Crees | Cupra/TOCA | 21m40.447s | 39.896s |
| 22 | Nick Halstead | Hyundai | 21m45.090s | 44.539s |
| 23 | Daryl Taylor | Cupra/TOCA | 21m46.523s | 45.972s |
| 24 | Jade Edwards | Cupra/TOCA | 21m52.842s | 1 lap /52.291s |
| 25 | Rory Butcher | Toyota | 21m55.189s | 2 laps /54.638s |
| (26) | Ronan Pearson | Hyundai | Retirement | |
