Dan Cammish survived a trip through the gravel amid a sudden cloudburst to take victory in the second British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Donington Park.
Following an early safety car, the race was extended from 14 laps to 17, and it was on the 15th of these that the field arrived at McLeans with the track suddenly awash.
In scenes reminiscent of the infamous 1975 British Grand Prix, the entire top six flew off the track and into the gravel, but Cammish was able to keep his Valvoline-liveried Alliance Racing Ford Focus ST at the front of the pack.
The safety car was then scrambled again, with the race finishing under caution.
Championship leader Tom Ingram was a loser in the rain. Despite having to run the hard tyres in this race, his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback clung on in third place, but Ingram dropped from third to fifth as he went through the gravel.
Even so, Ingram further extended his points lead over Ash Sutton, who was involved in an early-race three-car incident with Tom Chilton and Dan Rowbottom that caused damage to all three cars, before Sutton brought his Alliance Ford home in eighth position.
That drama allowed Cammish up from fifth to second at a stroke. Chilton had led away from pole, with the sister Excelr8 Hyundai of Ingram second, and the Alliance Fords of Sutton, Dan Rowbottom and Cammish next up.
Dan Cammish, NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST
Photo by: JEP
A three-car tangle at McLeans dumped Aiden Moffat and Sam Osborne to the back of the field, and left Senna Proctor’s damaged Excelr8 Hyundai stranded in the gravel, causing the first safety car.
At the restart, Ingram slipped down the inside of Chilton into Redgate. But Rowbottom, running hard tyres, appeared to lack grip into the turn and nerfed Sutton into Chilton, seriously scuppering the hopes of all three.
Cammish took a lap and a half before passing Ingram’s hard-tyred Hyundai at Coppice, and Ingram lost second place to Excelr8 team-mate Adam Morgan on the next lap.
From then on it was a cat-and-mouse game of TOCA Turbo Boost usage between Cammish and Morgan, but the Ford driver appeared to have everything under control. Then came the rain.
“Why does it always rain just at the last minute around here for me?” said Cammish, who picked up his fifth Donington BTCC victory in his 200th career start in the series.
“I kind of had it under control, and as I went round the left into McLeans it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was just a passenger.
“It was good to get the win, and boy do we deserve it after what’s been an up-and-down year. I’m absolutely spent – psychologically beaten up by that one!”
Morgan kept his second place, but only after some to-and-fro behind the safety car with Gordon Shedden. The Scottish three-time champion was seventh before the rain, and his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport was the best-placed car not to fly off the road at McLeans.
Chris Smiley and his Restart Racing Hyundai went from sixth to fourth amid the drama, ahead of Ingram, and Daryl DeLeon, whose West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport slipped from a strong fourth to sixth.
Josh Cook and Aron Taylor-Smith were double beneficiaries – their Speedworks Toyotas were promoted to seventh and eighth, and they have been drawn on the front row for the reversed-grid race. Cook also has a set of medium tyres available for the finale, while Taylor-Smith will have to use the hards.
Sutton just missed the reversed-grid cut in finishing ninth, one place ahead of the WSR BMW of Jake Hill. The reigning champion appeared to be struggling on the first lap and slipped from sixth to 13th, before storming back to fifth and then losing out the most in the McLeans rainstorm.
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