Dan Cammish believes he is in a ‘good place’ after emerging as the fastest driver in practice for the British Touring Car Championship at Croft, with the Honda driver already almost two seconds quicker than the previous lap record.
Cammish posted a lap of 1 minute 21.496 seconds in the second practice session at Croft, comfortably beating the previous lap record of 1:23.246 set by Colin Turkington in 2014 thanks to the new asphalt at the Yorkshire circuit.
Cammish admitted to being a little surprised to be on top of the times at a venue which has traditionally been a stomping ground for the rear-wheel drive cars.
“In a way I’m surprised, yes,” said Cammish to TouringCars.Net. “We knew coming here that it was very much a rear-wheel drive circuit. It’s hard to say until we all do exactly the same thing at the same time – then we’ll know.
“I’m very happy – we came here testing before they resurfaced it. Over the past 12 months there have been improvements to the car and we came here and went much quicker than last year in qualifying when I was 20th – last year I found this place really tough to get the car to really work.
“I’ve got a good feeling –the Porsche guys I’ve been working with have reported that the track has so much grip. I’m really hoping deep down in my gut that this is going to help us now.
“I know what our car needs to be quick and I thought maybe this new surface could really give us a boost. The car feels good, I think I’m in a good place, so let’s see what comes.”
Although both of the factory Civic FK8 drivers have been frequently out-paced by the older-spec FK2 drivers so far in 2019, Cammish remains confident that the newer-shape car can be the best car in the field with further refinement.
“Ultimately the car is a very quick car, and it has the potential to be as good, if not the best car out there.
“Everyone looks at the old car as the benchmark. From what I’ve heard from Matt and the team, [the old car] did have a very good operating window and also ultimately it’s considered probably the best of its generation in terms of a touring car.
“We’re chipping away at it, learning all the time. Ultimately, we have a fast car, it’s about how we get a fast car more of the time. Instead of hitting one race, how do we hit two or three out of three, because that’s what it is going to take to win this championship.”
Cammish changed engineer at the start of the year, with the departing Eddie Hinckley being replaced by Tom Hunt, who the Leeds racer is making progress with in his second year in the BTCC.
“It’s a bit of a change for me at the start of the year, losing my engineer and having a bit of a shake around. We just sat down then and said we are going in the right direction now.”