Dan Cammish:
“It’s been a good weekend on the whole, a decent point score for me. We qualified really well, I was happy with P3 especially as Oulton Park is somewhere we weren’t so competitive last year.
“A third in race one on the softs was good, and fourth in a race two on the hard tyre was a good result because there were a lot of guys on softs in that race. I was disappointed about the last race as it didn’t really go our way finishing P5, I’m not sure we’ve adapted the car fast enough to conditions but ultimately, as my engineer explained, I got all the way to the end in qualifying so the guy that beat me was on a fresher set of tyres.
“There are some interesting results up and down the pit lane that we’ll have to go and understand, but we know that’s touring cars. I come away with a good haul of points. I’m not as close to the top of the championship like I want to be, Tom Ingram’s had such a good day, but he’s driving a car that at the moment is the class of the field, so as a team we’ve got some work to do.
“We’ll go away and get our heads up. The summer break is a welcome rest and then we’ll see what the new part of the season brings.”
Dan Cammish achieved further podium success in the British Touring Car Championship weekend opener at Oulton Park (June 22/23), with a third place finish helping his championship aspirations.
Following two free practice sessions on Saturday, Dan finished third fastest in part one (group two) of qualifying, making it through to part two, where he was second fastest. Progressing to the Quick Six Shootout for pole, he continued his strong form and finished third, less than two tenths of a second from the top spot.
Electing to start the first race on the soft Goodyear tyres, Dan got a solid start to the 15-lap contest, putting him up close to the cars on the front row. Unfortunately, due to the tight confines of the narrow Oulton Park circuit, he was unable to make much further progress, despite setting the fastest lap of the race, and held grid position all the way to the chequered flag.
He lined up in third on the hard tyre for round 14 of the championship, however on the first lap was pushed wide and went onto the grass, doing well to only lose one position. In the early laps Dan was on the attack going side-by-side into turn one with Jake Hill. With the gaps so close there was a five-car fight for second place, Dan saw an opportunity in the final stages of the competition, making a move down the inside of teammate Ash Sutton, but unfortunately could not pick up the place and stayed in P4.
Starting third on the grid for the final contest, Dan got a good start to hold position off the line. Hoping to challenge the two Vauxhalls in front, he found himself getting the attention of Hill on the run down to turn two, the BMW driver enjoying a good run to go up the inside to take third. Dan had to then defend from Tom Ingram who made his way past by lap 10, before bringing his soft tyre shod Ford Focus home for fifth place and another haul of championship points.
The Napa Racing UK driver now has a few weeks break and will jump back in his Ford Focus ST at Croft on July 27/28, as the second half of the season gets into gear.
BTCC Drivers Championship, after 15 rounds
1. Jake Hill, 211 points
2. Tom Ingram, 207 points
3. Ashley Sutton, 187 points
4. Dan Cammish, 169 points
5. Josh Cook, 153 points
BTCC Manufacturers' Championship, after 15 rounds
1. Alliance Racing / Ford, 419 points
2. BMW, 395 points
3. EXCELR8 Motorsport / Hyundai, 350 points
4. Toyota, 325 points
BTCC Teams' Championship, after 15 rounds
1. NAPA Racing UK, 364 points
2. Team BRISTOL STREET MOTORS, 303 points
3. LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ, 266 points
4. Team BMW, 264 points