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Marcus Simmons

BTCC Thruxton: Cammish takes advantage of chaos for race one victory

The Yorkshireman made the most of a crazy opening lap between the cars immediately behind him to extend a huge advantage in his Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus ST of 2.419 seconds.

From third on the grid, Jake Hill surged his West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport ahead of the front-row-qualifying BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R of Josh Cook into Allard.

Cook then drew to the outside of Hill on the approach to the Complex, while Motorbase Ford ace Ash Sutton made it three-wide on the inside.

Hill was pincered in the middle, with Sutton squeezed to the inside, and contact from the Ford sent the BMW into a slide.

Through the Cobb left-hander, there was a clash between Cook and his good mate Sutton before the Honda was nerfed into a huge slide onto the grass from contact at the Complex exit of Segrave.

With Sutton’s momentum compromised, Gordon Shedden, who had qualified fifth, was able to make a brave pass around the outside of the Ford at the ultra-fast Noble left-hander to move into second position.

That all led to Cammish’s serene advantage but, with Sutton keeping him on his toes, Shedden erased the gap bit by bit, and the Team Dynamics Honda driver gained the point for fastest lap in the process.

Dan Cammish, NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

The interval was down to 1.050s by the time the chequered flag was unfurled, but Cammish never came under threat.

“It feels great,” said the relieved Yorkshireman, who has suffered a litany of trials and tribulations so far in 2022.

“Yesterday was part of the job, and that was an amazing pole for myself and the team.

“I made a great start, which I’m happy about, and then the chaos behind made it just like a gift.

“It was one of those funny races – you let your mind wander and then when you see them catching you have to get back into it.”

Behind Shedden and Sutton, Hill was reasonably close at hand throughout the race to claim fourth spot.

Ash Hand had a lonely race, the BTCC rookie continuing his impressive weekend to claim an excellent fifth in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.

Hand’s team-mate Michael Crees initially lay sixth, but lost two positions, first to Rory Butcher (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla) and then to Dan Rowbottom (Dynamics Honda), who claimed sixth and seventh respectively.

The leading pair in the championship, Tom Ingram and Colin Turkington, made good progress at the start from their lowly grid positions, but that was their plateau as they took ninth and 10th in Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N (which had a new engine fitted for Sunday) and WSR BMW respectively.

Cook recovered to 13th behind the BMWs of Stephen Jelley (WSR) and Adam Morgan (Ciceley Motorsport).

BTCC Thruxton race one results - 16 laps

Cla Driver Time Gap
1 United Kingdom Dan Cammish 20'42.490  
2 United Kingdom Gordon Shedden 20'43.540 1.050
3 United Kingdom Ashley Sutton 20'44.174 1.684
4 United Kingdom Jake Hill 20'47.626 5.136
5 United Kingdom Ash Hand 20'52.599 10.109
6 United Kingdom Rory Butcher 20'55.733 13.243
7 United Kingdom Daniel Rowbottom 20'56.405 13.915
8 Michael Crees 20'56.730 14.240
9 United Kingdom Tom Ingram 20'58.537 16.047
10 United Kingdom Colin Turkington 20'59.140 16.650
11 United Kingdom Stephen Jelley 21'01.466 18.976
12 United Kingdom Adam Morgan 21'01.782 19.292
13 United Kingdom Josh Cook 21'02.175 19.685
14 United Kingdom Jason Plato 21'02.821 20.331
15 Bobby Thompson 21'04.133 21.643
16 United Kingdom Aiden Moffat 21'11.361 28.871
17 United Kingdom Daniel Lloyd 21'11.496 29.006
18 United Kingdom Ollie Jackson 21'15.758 33.268
19 Ireland Aron Taylor-Smith 21'18.232 35.742
20 Jersey Jack Butel 21'18.351 35.861
21 Dexter Patterson 21'18.490 36.000
22 United Kingdom Ricky Collard 21'18.950 36.460
23 United Kingdom Sam Osborne 21'19.551 37.061
24 United Kingdom Tom Oliphant 21'24.753 42.263
25 Jade Edwards 21'26.769 44.279
26 Nicolas Hamilton 21'31.088 48.598
27 Rick Parfitt Jr. 21'31.517 49.027
28 United Kingdom Tom Chilton 21'37.634 1 Lap
  George Gamble 6'07.673 12 Laps
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