Dan Cammish fights to race one honours

Dan Cammish battled his way ahead of Jake Hill to grab the first win of the 2023 BTCC season in wet but drying conditions at Donington Park.

The drama started from the moment the lights went out, with Dan Rowbottom slow away off the line from pole and Hill trying to go round the Focus off the line only to then tap Ash Sutton – who had jumped into the lead but then found himself sliding across the grass and dropping down to seventh.

It meant Hill led through Redgate for the first time with team-mate Colin Turkington jumping up into second spot but the multiple champion would then be run wide through the Old Hairpin as Dan Cammish tried to make a move for position – dropping him down outside the top ten.

A moment for Tom Chilton saw the safety car deployed, with Sutton diving into the pits to retire with the front of his car full of grass, with the field doing a single lap under caution with Chilton able to get his Hyundai going again to rejoin the action.

Hill nailed the restart to hold onto the lead from Cammish and defending champion Tom Ingram, with pole man Rowbottom having slipped to fourth ahead of Ricky Collard and Josh Cook.

Cook dropped out of the fight when he ran wide across the gravel at Redgate, which briefly put Adam Morgan up to sixth before he lost a spot to impressive rookie Andrew Watson – just before the safety car came back out to recover Nick Halstead’s Hyundai from the gravel at the Old Hairpin.

It was Watson who won the move on the restart as he fought ahead of Collard for fifth place – with Morgan following him through – before setting off after fourth-placed Rowbottom ahead.

As Hill fought to keep Cammish and Ingram at bay, Watson closed in Rowbottom before grabbing fourth at the chicane and then put his sights on the top three.

Going into the 18th lap, Cammish had a look around the outside of Hill at turn one, tagging the rear of the BMW as he tried to get the cutback for the run to the Craner Curves which allowed Ingram and Watson to close onto his tail in what was now very much a four-way battle for the lead.

With Hill out of hybrid power, Cammish made his bid on lap 19 as he drew alongside exiting Redgate and made a move stick down the Craner Curves to hit the front with Watson almost getting alongside Ingram for third later in the lap before the champion eased him wide towards the kerb to keep the place.

Cammish was able to ease away over the final laps to secure his first win of the campaign with Hill going ultra-defensive into Redgate on the final lap to keep Ingram at bay for second.

That left Ingram under pressure from Watson but the Power Maxed Racing man was unable to get ahead and had to settle for fourth – with Ingram instead almost grabbing second on the run to the line as Hill took the flag just 0.093s ahead.

Rowbottom took fifth spot ahead of Collard’s Toyota, with Morgan and George Gamble rounding out the top eight; the latter picking off places to make up solid ground from qualifying.

A recovering Cook and Aron Taylor-Smith rounded out the top ten, with Rory Butcher and Turkington behind as the BMW man was unable to make up too much ground from his lap one dramas.

Aiden Moffat, Dexter Patterson and a recovering Chilton rounded out the points scorers.

Both Ronan Pearson and Dan Lloyd had looked good for top ten finishes in the early stages but would take trips off track that dropped them back down the order.