Dan Cammish inherits Race to Pole win after Árón Taylor-Smith penalised

NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish inherited victory in the British Touring Car Championship qualifying race at Oulton Park, after first-on-the-road Árón Taylor-Smith was given a five-second time penalty for weaving behind the safety car.

Taylor-Smith had earlier earned pole position for the qualifying race by posting the fastest time in the two-part qualifying session, whilst Cammish shared the front-row of the grid.

At the start, Taylor-Smith eased into a comfortable lead, as Cammish quickly slotted into second on the inside line into Old Hall corner.

Further around the lap, Team VERTU’s Tom Chilton moved over on Plato Racing’s Adam Morgan under braking for the Island hairpin, sending the former’s Hyundai clattering backwards into the barrier, although he was able to continue at the back of the field.

Then, heading into the Hislops chicane a corner later, Restart Racing’s James Dorlin clattered into Laser Tools Racing’s Gordon Shedden, who in turn knocked into Plato Racing’s Daniel Rowbottom.

The result was Rowbottom and Shedden taking to the grass and the latter picking up a front-right puncture, for which he retired to the pits.

The race was then neutralised halfway around the second lap, after Nicolas Hamilton lost control of his Hyundai under braking for the Island hairpin, resulting in a three-lap safety car period.

Just before the action got underway again on lap six, Taylor-Smith could be seen to be weaving on the approach to, and exit of, Lodge corner – the only driver in the field to be doing so – and he was subsequently handed a five-second penalty for breaching the safety car restart rules.

Cammish initially applied pressure to the leading Toyota, but as he became aware of the leader’s penalty, the NAPA driver backed off and consolidated his position.

Cammish thus won his first ‘race’ of the year by three tenths of a second ahead of Toyota’s Josh Cook, with points leader Sutton completing the podium.

Sutton was almost taken out by Ingram on the ninth lap when the Hyundai went into the back of the Ford at Lodge corner, although Ingram immediately backed off along the start-finish straight to hand the position back. In the final stages of the race, Ingram couldn’t find another way past Sutton and had to settle for fourth.

Taylor-Smith was classified in fifth after his penalty was applied, ahead of Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble in sixth.

Plato Racing’s Morgan took seventh, ahead of Power Maxed’s Dexter Patterson in eighth, his stable-mate Aiden Moffat in ninth and Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley in tenth.

Chilton ultimately recovered to 12^th after his crash, having been able to catch up to the pack due to the safety car pause.

Race one on Sunday is scheduled to get underway at 12:25 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	13	20:52.779	1:25.209	2
2	66	M		Josh COOK	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	0.301	1:24.629	4
3	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	13	2.592	1:25.143	6
4	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	2.979	1:25.034	8
5	50	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	4.334	1:25.194	1
6	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	13	4.990	1:25.547	3
7	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	13	6.493	1:25.568	9
8	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	13	6.830	1:25.737	5
9	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	13	8.087	1:25.680	10
10	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	8.139	1:25.603	16
11	132	I		James DORLIN	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	11.085	1:26.009	13
12	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	11.701	1:25.664	7
13	11	M		Ricky COLLARD	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	13	12.658	1:26.008	20
14	99	I		Charles RAINFORD	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	13	13.434	1:26.098	15
15	15	M		Lewis SELBY	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	13	13.946	1:26.224	18
16	2	I		Daryl DE LEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	13	14.369	1:25.936	17
17	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	13	15.175	1:26.108	14
18	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	13	45.640	1:25.580	11
R	28	M		Nicolas HAMILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	1	DNF	1:39.549	19
R	52	I		Gordon SHEDDEN	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	1	DNF	1:56.726	12
NS	19	M		Max BUXTON	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	–	DNS	N/A	–