Dan Cammish:
“Ultimately this weekend we weren’t quite fast enough, but our qualifying performance wasn’t bad. It’s the first time all season where we’ve been outside the window to start the weekend, which makes it difficult as you are chasing it. Race one was scrappy, and I really struggled with the car and getting it to do what I wanted, so I was disappointed to be ninth.
“It was a stark contrast in race two as we made some changes and on the medium tyre, we had much more performance and looked more competitive. Race three I had no chance to beating a BMW to turn one and that spoiled my whole race. [Adam] Morgan backed me into [Josh] Cook, Colin [Turkington] span me around at Clark, and we came all the way from the back to eighth. I came into the weekend 41 points off the lead, and I leave 42 points off the lead, but we’re running out of time. We’ve only won one race this season, so it’s a testament to how well the team is doing that Ash [Sutton] and I are in the battle.
“It’s been amazing to support the Race Against Dementia, as both my grandparents suffered, and it means a lot to me and my family. It’s been an amazing job by NAPA Racing UK and Alliance Racing, the fans have loved it, and it brings the motorsport community together. It’s a great charity and one all of us have been happy to be involved with.”
Dan Cammish kept himself in the British Touring Car Championship title battle, fighting back on a challenging weekend in Scotland (August 10/11).
The Yorkshireman sported a new design on his helmet for the annual trip to Knockhill, as he and NAPA Racing UK supported Race Against Dementia, founded by Sir Jackie Stewart OBE, after his wife Helen’s frontotemporal dementia diagnosis. The team sported new liveries for the weekend and sold specially designed merchandise as well as offered unique auction items, all to raise money for the charity.
In qualifying, Dan took part in Part 1 Group 1, making it through to Part 2. He finished just two tenths off in eighth quickest, where he would start the opening race of the weekend. Lining up on the soft tyres, he made an early move for seventh but losing momentum out of the hairpin, dropped to ninth behind teammate Ash Sutton, where he crossed the line.
He had a clean start to race two, remaining ninth, before taking eighth from Rob Huff in the early stages and then passing Árón Taylor-Smith for seventh. From there he pulled out an almost 10 second gap to the cars behind, but ran out of time to challenge those ahead, taking more good points.
Lining up sixth for the reverse grid race three, Dan fell back to eighth on the opening lap and was then mixed in a big battle before contact from Colin Turkington on the exit of Clark’s sent him off track, though he was able to avoid the barriers, falling to 16th. Quickly back on the charge, he was up to 12th when the Safety Car was called on lap 13 of what would be a 27-lap race and on the restart, he gained two more places, moved up to ninth on lap 23, and took eighth the following tour, capping a brilliant comeback drive.
Dan leaves Scotland just 42 points off the championship leader, with three meetings and nine more races to run in the 2024 British Touring Car Championship season. He will next be in action on the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit, over the weekend of August 24/25.
