BTCC: Turkington Takes Treble as Cammish Stars at Brands

As the British Touring Car Championship concluded its 60th year, Colin Turkington walked away with his third Drivers title and a well of emotions at the end of the second race.

Coming into the weekend, the headlines had been about his battle with the underdog Tom Ingram, racing for an independant one-off entry in the form of Speedworks Motorsport. Sadly for the 25-year-old, it would be another season as the bridesmaid, with Turkington doing enough during the first two races, despite his dire qualifying.

In fact, Turkington’s inability to pick up a top ten made it, far and away his worst weekend of the season, with Ingram going on to secure the Independant’s Crown, while BMW won the Teams and Manufacturer’s.

Results from the Weekend can be found here. Championship standings here.

Race One

Dan Cammish took his maiden win in the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch last weekend. The Halfords Yuasa racing driver took the lead off the start from pole man Eurotech driver Brett Smith. Whilst Cammish’s start would be investigated at the end of the race, he kept his nerve and controlled the race; despite pressure from his team mate Matt Neal in the closing laps.

Brett Smith managed to maintain his pace, for a maiden podium from his team mate Jack Goff, with Senna Proctor in the Power Maxed TAG Racing taking fourth. Aiden Moffet moved up from ninth to follow. The BTC Nolan driver Dan Lloyd in sixth, Andrew Jordan, Tom Chilton and James Cole rounded out the top ten in race one.

With Colin Turkington finishing in 12th, two places ahead of Tom Ingram, he extended his lead in the drivers’ title to 36 points leaving the Speedworks driver needing to outscore the Northern Irishman by 15 points in race two to keep the drivers title alive. Cammish was given a 30 second time penalty for his false start at the beginning of the race, but the team appealed the decision. The stewards upheld Team Dynamics appeal, the result meant the Honda driver kept his victory making him the 17th winner in the 2018 season.

Race Two

Dan Cammish took his second race in as many rounds as he leads his team mate Matt Neal, to the teams second 1-2 finish of the day. Neal was handed the position after Jack Goff Eurotech Racing Honda retired with an engine problem on lap five.

Tom Ingram made up 10 places in 10 laps from 14th with a ballast free car, but Colin Turkington’s team mate Andrew Jordan played the team role by keeping the Speedworks driver behind him as Turkington was running in 11th place. This would have been enough to be crown the driver title with one race to spare, but on lap 13 Colin Turkington made contact with Dan Lloyd at Paddock hill bend resulting the championship leader into the gravel resulting in the WSR driver finishing outside the points in 20th.

Despite this, with Ingram finishing fourth it was enough for Colin Turkington to become a triple champion. Moffett finished fifth ahead of Tom Chilton and Senna Proctor. Whilst, Josh Cook finished 10th to claim reverse grid pole.

Race Three

Race three saw Ash Sutton take his 6th race victory of the season. The BMR Subaru driver started third, but lost out to Tom Chilton off the start however he managed to hold on to fourth.

Pole sitter Josh Cook lost the lead to HMS driver Rob Austin – a lead he regained on lap five after a strong defence from the Alfa Romeo driver. Lap 6 Ash Sutton, passed Tom Chilton and set about passing Rob Austin. Sutton passed Austin on lap 8 and chased down the Power Maxed Astra on the final bend of the last lap of the championship.

The outgoing Ash Sutton pulled alongside Josh Cook to pip him on the line by 0.032 seconds. Finally, Rob Austin held off Tom Chilton and championship runner Tom Ingram for third place.

A full-season analysis of a historic year for the BTCC will be out in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to Motorsport Radio.