Dan Cammish:
“The last time we came to Thruxton it was my first ever non score in the British Touring Car Championship and this weekend it’s NAPA’s first pole, almost a double win, and a double podium, so we’ve had a mega weekend. It just shows you how quickly things can change around in the BTCC.
“Qualifying was mega. We’ve been working on getting a better race car and I think we’re getting there now with that. Snetterton was really good, but you have to dig a little bit deeper than the actual results to see, but we came here knowing that we had a better chance. The team did a great job, and chose the right strategy and set up. I got my second pole at Thruxton, and I was really, really pleased.
“I got a great start to race one and led lights to flag, I never looked back. It was quite straightforward, it reminded me of the old Porsche victories it was that nice. Race two I had another fantastic start, was leading and stretched the gap a little bit to Ash, it was all in control. Ultimately, the team comes first, and Ash is right there in the championship, so the call was made to switch us over, which is the right choice. Of course, it’s hard to swallow sometimes, but this is the job and you’ve got to accept that, so if I can help him towards the championship that’s what I need to do. It’s not been my year but it’s not to say that next year won’t be, and he certainly owes me a beer.
“Race three was really tough. We’d spent all day on our own and never really got behind anyone, so we didn’t really have any setup data for what happens when you’re in the dirty air and I had a car that was very hard to drive when I was behind people. It was always about trying to bring home a sensible position. P10 wasn’t ideal, but there’s a few people who had it more difficult today. Of course, I would like to go forward a bit more but to be honest with the experience we had of running in the traffic, it was always going to be a tough ask find a magic setup.”
Dan Cammish claimed victory and sportingly handed over what would have been a second win on a strong showing at the UK’s fastest circuit, Thruxton, in the British Touring Car Championship at the weekend (August 27/28).
Continuing his good upswing in form, thanks to hard work by his NAPA Racing UK / Motorbase Performance team, Dan showed well in qualifying on Saturday. Unsure whether he had anything left, the team spurred him on in the closing stages and he produced a stunning lap to claim his and NAPA Racing’s first pole position of the season.
Dan made a good start from the front on Sunday morning and, as there was a big squabble behind him for second position, he pulled out a 2.5s lead on the opening lap. From there he was never under any real pressure from those behind, driving a calm and comfortable race to claim a dominant lights to flag victory.
It was a repeat for race two, with Dan getting off the line well, while his teammate Ash Sutton battled for second position behind. Sutton then started to put pressure on Dan, though made a mistake at the chicane on lap four, which opened the gap. Dan looked comfortable throughout but moved aside on the penultimate lap to allow Sutton to take the victory, helping the team maximise its championship chances.
The Yorkshireman lined up tenth for the reverse grid race three and had a clean opening lap but couldn’t make up places in the early running. He ran a quiet race, albeit in a sandwich behind Michael Crees and ahead of Gordon Shedden and had to contend with reduced hybrid boost owing to his earlier success. Shedden managed to sneak past on the penultimate lap, with Dan crossing the line in tenth position.
Dan and NAPA Racing UK head to the Silverstone National circuit over the weekend of September 24/25, as they work to not only try to secure the best results possible but also aid teammate Ash Sutton in his quest for his fourth championship title.
