Dan Cammish takes lights-to-flag Thruxton win

Dan Cammish secured his first British Touring Car Championship victory of the season with a faultless drive in race one at Thruxton.

The pole sitter left the drama behind him to build a lead early on, and managed the gap to the rest of the field through the 16 lap race.

The win is the NAPA Racing UK driver’s first of the season since the final round of the 2020 season.

Behind Cammish was a typically dramatic BTCC race, starting with the battle for second.

Off the line, Josh Cook found himself under attack from Ash Sutton and Jake Hill. Sutton and Cook made contact as Sutton came through and Cook was sent sideways through the grass.

He managed to regain control of his BTC Racing run Honda but dropped down the order and returned to the track in P18.

Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden managed to avoid the drama to come through and take second, but he still had Sutton on his tail. The pair fought for second, allowing Cammish to pull away further ahead and for Hill to rejoin the battle.

In the second half of the race, MB Motorsport’s Hill seemed to lose pace compared to Shedden and Sutton, and it was a two car fight for the remainder of the race.

The pair began to close the gap late on, but were still more than a second behind Shedden at the chequered flag.

Hill finished fourth ahead of Power Maxed Racing’s Ash Hand, who had a lonely race in P5.

It was a messy first lap elsewhere in the pack, with a number of drivers making contact. Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Chilton was sent through the grass at high speed and came into the pits after the opening lap, while Toyota’s Ricky Collard was left scrambling to stay in control of his Corolla and dropped down the order.

Fellow Toyota driver Rory Butcher faired much better. He spent the race battling with Dan Rowbottom but managed to climb up to P6, with Rowbottom close behind. Michael Crees joined the fight late on and almost snatched seventh, finishing just 0.325s behind Rowbottom.

Excelr8’s Tom Ingram and Team BMW’s Colin Turkington completed the top ten.

Stephen Jelley led a train of cars over the line in 11^th, including Cook who recovered to finish P13.

Further back, it was a frantic battle just outside the points. Aiden Moffatt managed to hold off Dan Lloyd to finish P16 while Jade Edwards was locked in a battle with Jack Butel and Ollie Jackson. A sideways moment for Butel sent Edwards off to avoid the car. Edwards then collected an advertising boarding, but raced well with it stuck to the front of her car. She managed to come out at the front of the group and defended well against Jackson, but ultimately fell backwards with an issue late on.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:35 BST.

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	9	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	16	20:42.490	1:16.699	1
2	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	16	1.050	1:16.609	5
3	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	16	1.684	1:16.766	4
4	24	M		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	16	5.136	1:16.784	3
5	97	I		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	16	10.109	1:17.204	6
6	6	M		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	13.243	1:17.451	12
7	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	16	13.915	1:17.237	8
8	777	I		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	16	14.240	1:17.417	7
9	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	16	16.047	1:17.661	13
10	50	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	16	16.650	1:17.685	15
11	12	M		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	16	18.976	1:17.667	16
12	33	I		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	16	19.292	1:17.337	14
13	66	I		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	16	19.685	1:16.890	2
14	11	I		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	16	20.331	1:17.708	11
15	19	I		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	16	21.643	1:17.734	23
16	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	16	28.871	1:17.930	18
17	123	M		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	16	29.006	1:18.062	20
18	48	M		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	16	33.268	1:18.255	24
19	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	16	33.268	1:18.375	26
20	96	M		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	16	35.861	1:18.326	21
21	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	16	36.000	1:18.422	22
22	21	M		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	36.460	1:18.143	10
23	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	16	37.061	1:18.474	25
24	15	I		Tom OLIPHANT	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	16	42.263	1:18.656	29
25	99	I		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	16	44.279	1:18.162	19
26	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	16	48.598	1:19.385	28
27	62	I		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	16	49.027	1:19.228	27
28	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	15	1 Lap	1:17.377	9
R	42	I		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	4	DNF	1:17.150	17