BTCC Snetterton: Cammish fastest from Ingram in hot conditions

Dan Cammish led the way in free practice as the British Touring Car Championship warmed up for its third round at Snetterton.

The Berkshire-based Yorkshireman enters the weekend fifth in the standings, and therefore with access to nine seconds per lap of TOCA Turbo Boost on the series’ longest circuit. By contrast, Cammish’s team-mate in the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium squad, runaway championship leader Ash Sutton, has just one second per lap of deployment.

Nevertheless, Sutton lay second to Cammish, with a 1m55.646s to the times-topping 1m55.384s, when the red flags were unfurled with around a quarter of the extended one-hour session remaining, due to debris on the circuit at the final corner.

With just over 10 minutes on the clock when the session resumed, that allowed nearly everyone one final run on the soft-compound Goodyear tyres that are the standard rubber this weekend.

Cammish lowered his best to a 1m55.192s before finally stamping in a 1m55.066s, while the impressive Dexter Patterson, who had spent most of the running doing long runs on the medium option tyres on his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon, leapt into second place.

The young Scot’s effort was finally eclipsed by reigning champion Tom Ingram, who has just 3s per lap of TTB with his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback and then, on the very final lap, by the sister Excelr8 Hyundai of Tom Chilton.

Tom Ingram, Team Vertu Hyundai i30N

Photo by: JEP

As well as completing an Excelr8 2-3 behind Ingram, Chilton stole a modicum of bragging rights by setting what stood as the fastest lap on medium tyres earlier in the session – a 1m56.840s.

Another to dip below Sutton’s effort was Dan Rowbottom, who placed the lead Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon in fifth place.

Behind sixth-placed Sutton, who failed to improve after the red flag, Chris Smiley was seventh in his Restart Racing Hyundai. Eighth was Gordon Shedden, offering a glimmer of light to Speedworks Motorsport, whose other three Toyota Corolla GR Sports were anchored at the bottom of the times.

Aiden Moffat was ninth fastest in his PMR Audi, while James Dorlin made sure that both Restart Hyundais finished up in the top 10.

With hot weather expected all weekend – and temperatures in the mid-to-high twenties even in free practice – the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sports have been expected to shine since their rear-wheel-drive format takes less out of the tyres than the front-driven opposition.

Both are also on the maximum 20s per lap of TTB. WSR’s pairing of Charles Rainford and Daryl De Leon focused mainly on long runs on medium rubber, and ended up 12th and 16th respectively.

BTCC Snetterton - Practice results

FiP

All Stats

 

Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK	27		Ford Focus Titanium	20	1'55.066		92.886
2	T. Ingram Team Vertu	80		Hyundai i30N	18	+0.325 1'55.391	0.325	92.625
3	T. Chilton Team Vertu	3		Hyundai i30N	20	+0.368 1'55.434	0.043	92.590
4	D. Patterson Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing	17		Audi A3 Saloon	21	+0.428 1'55.494	0.060	92.542
5	D. Rowbottom Cataclean Plato Racing	32		Mercedes A35 Saloon	20	+0.543 1'55.609	0.115	92.450
6	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK	116		Ford Focus Titanium	22	+0.580 1'55.646	0.037	92.420
7	C. Smiley Restart Racing	22		Hyundai i30N	19	+0.612 1'55.678	0.032	92.395
8	G. Shedden Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	52		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	+0.676 1'55.742	0.064	92.344
9	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	16		Audi A3 Saloon	20	+0.733 1'55.799	0.057	92.298
10	J. Dorlin Restart Racing	132		Hyundai i30N	20	+0.998 1'56.064	0.265	92.087
11	A. Morgan Cataclean Plato Racing	33		Mercedes A35 Saloon	20	+1.029 1'56.095	0.031	92.063
12	C. Rainford West Surrey Racing	99		BMW 330i M Sport	22	+1.161 1'56.227	0.132	91.958
13	S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK	77		Ford Focus Titanium	22	+1.215 1'56.281	0.054	91.916
14	M. Doble LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	88		Audi A3 Saloon	19	+1.246 1'56.312	0.031	91.891
15	L. Selby NAPA Racing UK	15		Ford Focus Titanium	22	+1.487 1'56.553	0.241	91.701
16	D. De Leon West Surrey Racing	2		BMW 330i M Sport	19	+1.503 1'56.569	0.016	91.689
17	R. Collard Team Vertu	11		Hyundai i30N	22	+1.505 1'56.571	0.002	91.687
18	N. Hamilton Team Vertu	28		Hyundai i30N	21	+1.685 1'56.751	0.180	91.546
19	J. Cook Speedworks Corolla Racing	66		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	16	+1.839 1'56.905	0.154	91.425
20	A. Taylor-Smith Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	50		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	+2.088 1'57.154	0.249	91.231
21	M. Buxton Speedworks Corolla Racing	19		Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	+3.678 1'58.744	1.590	90.009
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