Dan Cammish said he was ‘really proud’ to bounce back from his Brands Hatch error with pole position in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton.
After a self-induced retirement whilst fighting for victory at Brands Hatch, in which Cammish inadvertently switched off the ignition and precipitated his own retirement from the race, the NAPA Racing UK driver was delighted to come out on top of the 25-car field in qualifying in Norfolk on Saturday.
Cammish topped his Q1 group, then went fourth fastest in Q2, 0.436 seconds behind pace-setter Tom Ingram, to seal his place in the ‘Quick Six’.
There, Cammish smashed the lap record with a time of 1 minute 53.750 seconds to claim pole, although with Ingram only 0.03 seconds behind he was kept honest in the process.
Taking his second pole of the season was the perfect way to come back after his disappointment last time out, said Cammish.
“After last week, there’s not a better way to bounce back,” said Cammish. “To show the team that we make mistakes… but I’ve got a fantastic car, I’ve got an amazing team and group of people around me and I’m proud of myself for putting last week behind me and coming out swinging today when it mattered.”
Cammish admitted that it takes commitment to go through the first corner of the lap with the speed necessary to take pole.
“I’m not always the best tester. I have to kind of screw myself up to really push in testing and Turn 1 is a good example – it’s fifth gear, down one [gear], turn in, back to flat, and we do that on lap one with no practice at all – you’ve just got to believe that the rear of the car sticks.
“It takes me a while to get there, and by Q3 I’m like ‘Dan, this is going to make it or break it, so take your brain out and take a deep breath’.
“When it goes through and you’ve watched the lap delta just come down by a tenth and a half your whole motivation just goes through the roof and you just keep taking time then.
“The Q3 time was quite a lot faster than my Q2 time and I thought I must have been in a class of my own there.
“But then the team said ‘yeah, only by about three hundredths from Tom [Ingram]!’
“I’m really proud of this one and tomorrow we’re going to have a good fight on our hands.”