Dan Cammish wins dramatic season opener
Dan Cammish secured the first win of the 2020 season after coming out on top of a dramatic British Touring Car Championship opener at Donington Park.
The Honda driver had started on the front row of the grid alongside Colin Turkington’s BMW but, as predicted, dropped down to third on the run to turn one after losing a place to the quick-starting Infiniti of Ash Sutton.
Cammish followed behind the pair as the two rear-wheel drive cars diced for the lead through the opening laps, with Sutton all over the rear of Turkington’s BMW before getting a run out of the Old Hairpin on lap four.
Moving up the inside on the run to McLeans, Sutton then got out of shape where there was brief contact between the two cars, which allowed Cammish to dive up the inside to go from third into the lead. Sutton tried to fight back into Coppice but contact from Turkington, who in turn had been nudged by Tom Ingram behind, saw the Infiniti spin into the infield and to the back of the pack.
Cammish built a slender lead out front before the Safety Car was deployed after Nic Hamilton went off in the gravel at the final corner and beached his VW CC.
However, when the race resumed with a few laps to go, Cammish could control proceedings from the front to wrap up the first win of the campaign with Turkington left to settle for second place.
Behind, Rory Butcher took a solid third in the new Motorbase Ford Focus having managed to keep himself out of the trouble ahead, picking up spots when Sutton suffered his spin off track and then running in the top three right to the finish.
Initially, the Scot had been under pressure from Tom Oliphant’s BMW but the WSR man would slip back after the restart when both Tom Ingram and Matt Neal were able to get ahead at turn one to secure fourth and fifth places. Oliphant therefore rounded out the top six.
An impressive seventh spot when to Sam Osborne, who secured his best result by far in the only MB Motorsport Honda to make it to the finish. Osborne had run inside the top ten early on and was behind team-mate Jake Hill on track before he was forced to pit with a mechanical issue and was the first retirement.
Osborne would come under pressure from Chris Smiley after the restart but the EXCELR8 man had to settle for eighth spot in the new Hyundai, which was the first top ten result for both car and team on the debut for the I30 N. Stephen Jelley and Tom Chilton rounded out the top ten, the latter just edging out the charging Audi of Bobby Thompson.
Sutton, who would prove to be the quickest man on track, battled back to 14th at the finish, just behind Josh Cook after he suffered an off on the opening lap and also had to fight back through the field.
