Halfords Yuasa Racing's Dan Cammish put his 2019 title heartbreak firmly behind him as he got redemption in Round 4 of the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch to win ahead of Team BMW's Colin Turkington and Motorbase Performance's Ollie Jackson.
9th August 2020
Qualifying Report
Qualifying on Pole Position was Rory Butcher who carried over 48kg of ballast in the new Ford Focus ST. It was a first pole position for the new car run by the Motorbase Performance team. Team-mate Ollie Jackson, who was ballast free, lined-up in third with the Honda Civic Type R of Dan Cammish splitting the two drivers in second.
Cammish, who won the opening race of the season in Donnington Park, was just +0.031s behind Butcher for the Halfords Yuasa Racing team.
The Honda Civic Type R run by MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square of Jake Hill qualified in fourth despite topping the two practice sessions. Championship leader Colin Turkington qualified in fifth with the maximum ballast of 60kg with Team BMW team-mate of Tom Oliphant, who set an identical time to the Northern Irishman, started in sixth in the BMW 330i M Sport.
Race Report
The lights went out and it was a good start by pole-sitter Butcher to lead into Paddock Hill Bend with the rear-wheel drive BMW of Turkington making a great start to blast past Hill and then Jackson who was squeezed by Cammish on the run to the first corner.
In the heavy BMW, Turkington, now third, had a recovering Jackson to defend from into Hawthorns as the Toyota Corolla of Tom Ingram diced with Oliphant. The BTC Racing of Josh Cook got interested in the battle but Oliphant was late to react to Cook and the BMW driver was sent for a trip across the grass. He managed to control the car but dropped 16th as Butcher kept Cammish at bay for the lead.
Butcher had extended his gap to eight tenths at the start of Lap 3 over Cammish as Turkington was still under intense pressure from Jackson. After defending against Cook from a poor entry onto Cooper Straight, Ingram had lost touch with the five drivers ahead of him and had four eager drivers behind him to contend with.
Onto Lap 5 and Cammish had closed the gap to Butcher with the gap now down to four tenths. Cook, who took to the grass trying to overtake Ingram at Sheene Curve, pitted to have his radiators cleared. This promoted Adam Morgan to 11th and the charging Oliphant to 12th.
With Butcher keeping Cammish at bay, it allowed Turkington, who'd managed to create a gap to Jackson behind, to join the battle for the lead. Onto Lap 9, the leading trio were only separated by one second.
Ingram defended well to keep sixth and caught up to the back of Hill in fifth. Onto Lap 11, Butcher put in a great lap to extend his lead ahead Cammish to over nine tenths who had Turkington for company. With a great drive onto Cooper Straight, Ingram managed to grab the inside line for Surtees and moved up into fifth at Hill's expense.
There was contact made between the Infiniti of Aiden Moffat and the Honda of Matt Neal with Neal tipping Moffat into a spin which forced the Honda into a spin over the battle for 17th. Moffat was able to continue on but Neal spun into the barrier on the run-down to Westfield.
With the Honda Civic Type R stranded on the grass, the Safety Car was deployed on Lap 13. Neal's Honda was towed away and the race was extended to 18 laps with Butcher leading the field as racing resumed on Lap 16.
It was a good restart by Butcher but he was slow out of Paddock Hill Bend with Cammish diving down the inside of Druids to take the lead. Butcher locked-up on the left-front tyre but it looked like something far more terminal for the Motorbase Performance driver. He had developed a puncture and fell down the order.
Onto the final lap and Cammish had pulled a one second gap to Turkington behind as Jackson defended from Ingram in the battle for the final podium spot.
Cammish crossed the line to take win number two of the season ahead of Turkington as Jackson held onto third ahead of Ingram. It was a great drive by both Cammish and Turkington as they had the two heaviest cars on the grid with ballast.
The win for Cammish had cut Turkington's gap in the championship down to two points with the pair on 63 and 61 points respectively. A second career podium for Jackson saw him rocketing up the order to sit in 7th with 32 points.
Round 4 Results
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