![Dan Cammish, NAPA Racing UK [Alliance Racing], Ford Focus ST NGTC](https://www.touringcars.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Dan-Cammish-Ford.jpg "Photo: Pat Cranham")
NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish was pleased to score the first British Touring Car Championship pole position of the season at Donington Park.
The 36-year-old edged out team-mate Ash Sutton by just 0.011 seconds in the all-important Q3 session, having recovered from losing a lap due to exceeding track limits.
However, that didn’t faze the Leeds-based racer, as intermittent radio problems meant he was unaware of the loss of his then-best lap, allowing him to focus on pushing to secure pole position a few minutes later.
Earlier in the session, Cammish had lost three of his best laps in Q2, meaning he spent much of the session at the base of the timesheets before sneaking into the ‘Quick Six’ at the end.
“I only really hear the team on the start-finish straight and they’ve been trying to talk to me around the lap but I just don’t hear it,” explained Cammish to TouringCars.Net.
“I got a few track limits [penalties] in Q2 which is absolutely on me, that was just mistakes in a car that got a bit tricky to drive for some reason. We got through and made the necessary changes for Q3 that really brought it back to life and I was much happier.
“Everyone is pushing the boundaries – you can look at the cars and they all look battle-scarred from nudging up at the chicane. It’s been a talking point today, but ultimately, we were just on the right side of it when it mattered there.
“The rest of the lap is mega and then the chicane is nothing like we’ve ever driven at this circuit – it’s a proper tight corner now; it was new to everyone.
“We came here testing and it was totally different. You could be three or four tenths up and lose it all in one corner.
“The lap time is a little bit of a misnomer – these are definitely the fastest cars we’ve had in a long time. You can probably take three or four tenths off that lap time on a different day with a different configuration of the final corner.
“People were getting pinged left, right and centre. Ash and myself were adamant we hadn’t touched it [the track limits sensor] and got told we had six strikes each, and you’re thinking ‘I haven’t been on it, I haven’t even had a black and white [flag]’. I think they’re really struggling to police it.
“We’ve always talked about policing exit curves, but no one has ever mentioned in the whole time I’ve been in touring cars about monitoring the entry curves, apart from Brooklands at Silverstone; everywhere else its fair game.
“Then suddenly you come here and it’s ‘don’t use the entry kerb’. But I’m sorry, that’s not going to fly. I think it was the right result, putting the tyres back in.”
Cammish is expecting Tom Ingram, directly behind him in third on the grid, to be aggressive at the start of Sunday’s opening race but is hoping that strength in numbers will favour the NAPA Racing UK team.
“I’m starting alongside Ash, in front of Tom and you’ve got Dan there as well. We’ve got three cars in the top four, so we do outnumber Tom a little bit. But he’ll be aggressive off the start and will be out to prove a point – he’s already said he wants that title back.
“Ash wants it back as well, and I want my first one which I think is long overdue. Ultimately what comes tomorrow will be a very hard fought race between some good guys in good cars.”