Dan Cammish cruised to victory in the first race of the British Touring Car Championship finale at Brands Hatch, while Tom Ingram consolidated his points advantage over Ash Sutton.
The Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST of Cammish effectively moved onto pole position when there was heartbreak for qualifying topper Daryl DeLeon, who pulled his West Racing BMW 330i M Sport into pitlane at the end of the formation lap reporting a loss of power.
Cammish converted that into the early advantage, while Tom Chilton won an early battle with Dan Rowbottom to establish his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback in second place.
Chilton achieved that by muscling inside the bearded Midlander’s Alliance Ford at Druids on the third lap, and Rowbottom lost further ground when another Excelr8 Hyundai, that of Adam Morgan, shoved him wide at Surtees.
That allowed the WSR BMW of Charles Rainford into third place, but his bid to wrest the runner-up spot from Chilton was scotched on the 11th lap of 15.
The BMW most definitely lost out in the battling with the Hyundais, with contact from the normally mild-mannered Morgan pushing Rainford onto the grass at Surtees.
With Rainford disappearing from his mirrors, Chilton attempted to get on terms with Cammish, but the Berkshire-domiciled Yorkshireman had conserved his three laps of TOCA Turbo Boost until the final three tours of the race.
Dan Cammish, NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST
Photo by: JEP
Cammish crossed the finish line 1.260 seconds ahead of the battling Hyundais, to give him some breathing space in the battle for third in the championship.
“It was a good win,” said Cammish. “On the opening lap Dan [Rowbottom] got a bit close and pushed me at Hawthorn’s, but then it was good just to be out in front and control the pace of the race, to see the guys behind coming and when they’re not, and bring it home. I knew we had the boost offset, but I had enough performance.”
Morgan had saved one lap of TTB for the final tour, while Chilton had used his up, but the Lancastrian “was a bit premature [on the button] and locked myself out. Story of my life!”
Rainford, who took the fastest lap, brought his BMW home in fourth to leapfrog the unfortunate DeLeon to the top of the Jack Sears Trophy standings.
Ingram started seventh in his Excelr8 Hyundai, and was running medium tyres with all but Jake Hill of those ahead of him on softs.
Hill’s bid to make early ground with his WSR BMW involved contact with Morgan, and then a left-front puncture consigned him to the pits at the end of the opening lap.
Ingram thereafter had as quiet a race as a championship leader in the BTCC can hope for to bring it home fifth.
Tom Ingram, Team Vertu Hyundai i30N
Rowbottom’s adventures meant he spent the closing stages of the race fending off Gordon Shedden’s medium-tyred Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport, a mission at which he succeeded to take sixth.
Dan Lloyd moved further ahead in the Independents championship standings with eighth position in his Restart Racing Hyundai, while team-mate Chris Smiley made life extremely difficult for overall title contender Sutton.
Both Restart Hyundais were on soft tyres with Sutton’s Alliance Ford on mediums, and Smiley appeared to have got the job done before a mistake at Graham Hill Bend on the penultimate lap sent him wide onto the grass.
Sutton therefore took ninth ahead of Smiley, but could not prevent the points gap to Ingram widening to 37, with just 44 available from the final two races.
BTCC Brands Hatch – Race 1 results
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