Croft BTCC: Honda driver Cammish leads BMWs in practice
Team Dynamics driver Dan Cammish went fastest in free practice for the British Touring Car Championship round at Croft to beat the BMWs of Andrew Jordan and Colin Turkington
Cammish also set the pace in practice last time out at Thruxton before slipping to second in qualifying and scoring a brace of podiums in his FK8-generation Honda Civic Type R.
The resurfaced Croft circuit helped Cammish to a 1m21.496s, which meant he comfortably beat Turkington's 2014 qualifying record by 1.9 seconds.
Croft has traditionally favoured the rear-wheel-drive runners, but Cammish and team-mate Matt Neal ran together on track and set the early benchmark times.
As the session wore on, no one asserted themselves clearly at the top of the times with joint championship leader Rory Butcher and fellow AMD Tuning driver Sam Tordoff also enjoying periods in the lead.
A red flag was then called with 21 of the 40 minutes remaining when Nicholas Hamilton clipped the tyre stack at the chicane, after which it blocked the circuit.
Once running resumed, defending champion Turkington looked like Cammish's closest rival - despite the BMW 330i M Sport's power having been pegged back by 4bhp coming into the Croft weekend.
The WSR driver briefly held second before he was eclipsed by his team-mate Jordan, the most successful driver of the season so far with three victories.
But Cammish held on to top spot 0.098s clear of Jordan, with Turkington a further 0.145s in arrears.
Tordoff suffered late damage to the front-left of his FK2 Civic Type R after hitting the tyres at the Jim Clark Esses but maintained fourth place ahead of lead Power Maxed Racing driver Jason Plato.
Neal eventually dropped to sixth, ahead of Team Parker Racing's Stephen Jelley in the ex-Turkington 2018 championship winning BMW 125i M Sport.
Jelley was one of many to be caught out at the double-apex Sunny complex in the final sector, with Ashley Sutton and Jake Hill also falling foul.
Jack Goff's excursion at the same corner while piloting "the most lairy car I've ever driven in my life" led to him being black flagged from the session, following the path of Motorbase driver Hamilton who also suffered the same fate.
Third WSR driver Tom Oliphant was eighth ahead of Sutton and Butcher - the latter sharing the same 48kg load of success ballast as Turkington for their positions in the standings.
Jordan had set the pace in the slower first free practice session, beating 2017 champion Sutton by 0.085s with Tordoff leading Turkington to complete the top four.
That session was red flagged within the first 10 seconds as a tractor was still on circuit having been attending to track repairs at Sunny.
MG6 driver Rob Smith was barred from participating in practice one for breaching BTCC regulations by taking part in a national motorsport event at the venue two weeks prior.
Practice one times
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Andrew Jordan | WSR | BMW | 1m22.039s | - | 18 |
2 | Ash Sutton | BMR Racing | Subaru | 1m22.124s | 0.085s | 17 |
3 | Sam Tordoff | AmD Tuning | Honda | 1m22.124s | 0.085s | 17 |
4 | Colin Turkington | WSR | BMW | 1m22.270s | 0.231s | 18 |
5 | Tom Oliphant | WSR | BMW | 1m22.322s | 0.283s | 21 |
6 | Rory Butcher | AmD Tuning | Honda | 1m22.396s | 0.357s | 17 |
7 | Matt Neal | Team Dynamics | Honda | 1m22.515s | 0.476s | 17 |
8 | Chris Smiley | BTC Racing | Honda | 1m22.554s | 0.515s | 22 |
9 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 1m22.630s | 0.591s | 16 |
10 | Dan Cammish | Team Dynamics | Honda | 1m22.634s | 0.595s | 18 |
11 | Senna Proctor | BMR Racing | Subaru | 1m22.648s | 0.609s | 17 |
12 | Stephen Jelley | Team Parker Racing | BMW | 1m22.757s | 0.718s | 19 |
13 | Rob Collard | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 1m22.787s | 0.748s | 15 |
14 | Tom Chilton | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m22.857s | 0.818s | 17 |
15 | Jason Plato | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 1m22.898s | 0.859s | 16 |
16 | Matt Simpson | Simpson Racing | Honda | 1m22.932s | 0.893s | 14 |
17 | Jake Hill | Trade Price Cars Racing | Audi | 1m22.982s | 0.943s | 17 |
18 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | 1m23.020s | 0.981s | 15 |
19 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 1m23.048s | 1.009s | 18 |
20 | Ollie Jackson | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m23.156s | 1.117s | 17 |
21 | Josh Cook | BTC Racing | Honda | 1m23.171s | 1.132s | 19 |
22 | Jack Goff | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m23.208s | 1.169s | 18 |
23 | Daniel Rowbottom | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 1m23.280s | 1.241s | 18 |
24 | Bobby Thompson | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m23.291s | 1.252s | 17 |
25 | Nicolas Hamilton | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m23.426s | 1.387s | 20 |
26 | Michael Crees | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m23.529s | 1.490s | 17 |
27 | Mark Blundell | Trade Price Cars Racing | Audi | 1m23.940s | 1.901s | 15 |
28 | Carl Boardley | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m24.048s | 2.009s | 11 |
29 | Sam Osborne | Excelr8 Motorsport | MG | 1m24.328s | 2.289s | 18 |
Practice two times
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Dan Cammish | Team Dynamics | Honda | 1m21.496s | - | 16 |
2 | Andrew Jordan | WSR | BMW | 1m21.594s | 0.098s | 18 |
3 | Colin Turkington | WSR | BMW | 1m21.739s | 0.243s | 16 |
4 | Sam Tordoff | AmD Tuning | Honda | 1m21.752s | 0.256s | 12 |
5 | Jason Plato | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 1m21.835s | 0.339s | 17 |
6 | Matt Neal | Team Dynamics | Honda | 1m21.840s | 0.344s | 14 |
7 | Stephen Jelley | Team Parker Racing | BMW | 1m21.965s | 0.469s | 20 |
8 | Tom Oliphant | WSR | BMW | 1m22.004s | 0.508s | 17 |
9 | Ash Sutton | BMR Racing | Subaru | 1m22.013s | 0.517s | 16 |
10 | Rory Butcher | AmD Tuning | Honda | 1m22.098s | 0.602s | 15 |
11 | Tom Chilton | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m22.243s | 0.747s | 12 |
12 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 1m22.251s | 0.755s | 18 |
13 | Rob Collard | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 1m22.269s | 0.773s | 18 |
14 | Chris Smiley | BTC Racing | Honda | 1m22.315s | 0.819s | 18 |
15 | Jake Hill | Trade Price Cars Racing | Audi | 1m22.405s | 0.909s | 15 |
16 | Senna Proctor | BMR Racing | Subaru | 1m22.422s | 0.926s | 18 |
17 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 1m22.457s | 0.961s | 17 |
18 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | 1m22.547s | 1.051s | 16 |
19 | Ollie Jackson | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m22.612s | 1.116s | 17 |
20 | Josh Cook | BTC Racing | Honda | 1m22.625s | 1.129s | 18 |
21 | Matt Simpson | Simpson Racing | Honda | 1m22.992s | 1.496s | 16 |
22 | Jack Goff | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m23.055s | 1.559s | 13 |
23 | Daniel Rowbottom | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 1m23.135s | 1.639s | 14 |
24 | Mark Blundell | Trade Price Cars Racing | Audi | 1m23.210s | 1.714s | 18 |
25 | Carl Boardley | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m23.352s | 1.856s | 13 |
26 | Michael Crees | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m23.419s | 1.923s | 16 |
27 | Bobby Thompson | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 1m23.503s | 2.007s | 12 |
28 | Nicolas Hamilton | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 1m23.709s | 2.213s | 6 |
29 | Rob Smith | Excelr8 Motorsport | MG | 1m24.039s | 2.543s | 16 |
30 | Sam Osborne | Excelr8 Motorsport | MG | 1m24.210s | 2.714s | 19 |
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