Sam Osborne claims maiden BTCC win in reverse-grid Silverstone race

NAPA Racing UK’s Sam Osborne secured his maiden British Touring Car Championship victory in the reverse-grid race three at Silverstone, scoring a lights-to-flag win ahead of Toyota’s Josh Cook.

The top twelve finishers from race two were drawn to be reversed for the finale, giving Osborne pole with Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble alongside.

Drama before the start meant that WSR’s Daryl DeLeon, who should have lined up in third, would be pushed off the grid due to a driveshaft failure, resigning the BMW driver to start from the pitlane.

At the start, the leading duo made a good start, whilst WSR’s Aiden Moffat vaulted from fifth on the grid to third before the first corner.

Contact between NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish, who started 21^st, and Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley saw both go off onto the Copse corner runoff, whilst further around the lap contact between Toyota’s Árón Taylor-Smith and Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd sent the latter spinning off at Becketts.

Cook passed both Moffat and Doble to assume second on lap two, and the Corolla racer generally kept within half a second of Osborne in the first half of the race, before applying further pressure in the closing stages.

But despite closing to just a couple of tenths from Osborne in the final laps, Cook couldn’t quite find the edge to mount a serious move for the lead, and a lockup two laps from the finish effectively put paid to his challenge for the lead.

Osborne thus claimed victory on his 202^nd BTCC start, with Cook over a second adrift.

NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton made five places on the opening lap, before dispatching Jake Hill on lap two, Doble on lap five and Moffat a lap later to assume third.

But the championship challenger lacked the TOCA Turbo Boost to keep with the leaders, and the gap to the leading duo stubbornly grew over the second half of the race, with Sutton eventually completing the podium in a distant third, over four seconds adrift.

Laser Tools Racing’s Hill was fourth, whilst Team Vertu’s Tom Ingram fought his way to fifth, like Sutton enjoying a strong start to move up four places on the opening tour alone.

It means that heading to the Brands Hatch season finale next month Ingram holds a comfortable 33-point lead over Sutton, having nudged the points gap between the two up by one point.

Moffat took the chequered flag in sixth, concluding his best weekend of the season so far, closely followed by Team Vertu’s Adam Morgan and Tom Chilton.

The top ten was completed by NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish and Power Maxed’s Mikey Doble.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	22	21:17.419	57.535	1
2	66	M		Josh COOK	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	22	1.609	57.399	4
3	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	22	4.463	57.381	11
4	1	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	22	9.543	57.704	10
5	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	22	10.065	57.671	12
6	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	22	10.541	57.768	5
7	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	22	11.380	57.642	19
8	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	22	11.701	57.560	20
9	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	22	14.799	57.533	21
10	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	CUPRA Leon	22	15.549	58.110	2
11	40	M		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	22	16.190	58.122	9
12	99	M		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	22	17.615	57.974	8
13	18	M		Senna PROCTOR	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	22	23.613	57.499	16
14	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	22	24.053	57.697	18
15	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	22	24.614	58.243	17
16	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	22	24.979	57.962	6
17	123	I		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	22	25.934	57.778	7
18	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	22	26.983	58.202	15
19	19	M		Max BUXTON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	22	33.952	57.899	13
20	2	M		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	19	+ 3 LAPS	58.283	3
21	50	I		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	CUPRA Leon	18	+ 4 LAPS	58.651	14
NS	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	–	DNS	N/A	22