BTCC Croft: Cammish wins opener as Sutton is gifted second

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…”

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

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