Dan Cammish tops rapid opening practice at Thruxton

Dan Cammish topped the times in the opening free practice session of the weekend at Thruxton as the BTCC field wasted little time in getting up to speed at the fastest circuit on the calendar.

Cammish broke the qualifying lap record en-route to the best time in his Team Dynamics-run Honda Civic Type R, and was even able to spend the final few minutes of the session outside his car with his time proving to be unbeatable.

For a large chunk of the session it had been the older Honda of Jake Hill that topped the times with the MB Motorsport driver having set a 1:15.612s lap on his first timed run of the session.

Cammish would eventually break that with a 1:15.327 that saw him end up nearly three tenths of a second clear; a sizeable margin in BTCC terms.

Behind Hill, Tom Ingram would also break the 1:16 barrier in the Speedworks Toyota having not set his quickest lap until the second half of the session, in much the same way as Cammish didn’t set his benchmark until later on.

Tom Oliphant was the quickest of the rear wheel drive cars in his BMW in fourth spot but was nearly seven tenths of a second off the pace set by Cammish, with Adam Morgan and Josh Cook rounding out the top six – his BTC Racing Honda having now been fully repaired after his accident at Knockhill.

Points leader Colin Turkington was seventh quickest in the second of the WSR-run BMWs, with his closest rival in the points, Ash Sutton, down in twelfth spot.

On his return to action in the Power Maxed Racing Astra, Rob Austin secured the 20th best time which put him five spots ahead of the Volkswagen CC of Tom Onslow-Cole.

The session would pass without major issue, although there was a spin for Carl Boardley’s BMW at the chicane. The Team HARD driver would end up propping up the times.