Cammish tops Honda top-three lockout at in-season Thruxton BTCC test

Due to Rockingham's closure, the BTCC will visit Hampshire venue Thruxton twice this year on May 19 and August 18.

Cammish took his FK8-spec hatchback around the 2.36-mile track in 1m15.292s during the morning's running to notch the best time, although he was unable to improve in the afternoon.

He had survived a small coming together with team-mate Matt Neal in the morning.

"It's always nice to be quickest," said Cammish. "We went very well here last year and did a good job. Matt [Neal] was on pole.

"Out of the box this morning, the car felt very strong.

"We're working through our programme and there were a few laps in there that would have been good enough for pole.

"It was a shame about the little bit of damage. Matt had an issue with his car and jumped into mine. I think he got caught in traffic and was a little off. It's fine, though, just a small prang!"

Cammish is 18th in the standings after a tough opening three races at Brands Hatch earlier this month, but was buoyed by the test result.

His lap was faster than last year's pole position time - a 1m15.612s set by Neal.

"As a driver, I've come long way since this time last year and so has the car," added Cammish.

"We've made improvements over the winter and we'll see a bit more from it here. As a package we should be strong.

"Right now I'd have to say I'm glad we're coming here twice."

Cammish was fastest from the similar Honda Civic FK8 of Chris Smiley, who is run by BTC Racing. He banked a 1m15.534s lap, 0.242 seconds away from the benchmark, which was the quickest in the afternoon's hour-long session.

"It is the first track we have been to with high-speed corners so I was just learning my way this morning," said Smiley.

"I drove it initially to where I thought it was safe.

"In the second session, I'd seen the data at lunch and seen what I needed to do to go faster and that worked, but you need to treat this place with respect."

Brands Hatch race three winner Rory Butcher made it a Honda top-three lockout in his AmD Tuning Civic Type R, the older FK2 shape.

He clocked a 1m15.701s lap as he tried to complete a race distance, although he was unsuccessful.

Butcher said: "It is a really demanding circuit and it takes a lot to hook up a qualifying run, it is so intense and so fast and we worked through that so I am a bit tired now.

"We worked through a few changes to the car that are Thruxton-specific, and we have made some good progress. I am confident."

The 2017 champion Ash Sutton was fourth in his BMR Racing Subaru Levorg, ahead of Aiden Moffat's Laser Tools Racing Mercedes and Colin Turkington's WSR 330i M Sport BMW.

All of the championship's 30 competitors were present at the test, bar Team Hard's VW CC driver Carl Boardley who was busy with work commitments.

Leading test times