BTCC plus Legends Elite Cup Croft 30th July 2023
EASY AS 1-2-3 FOR NAPA RACING UK
The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship returned to action after their six-week mid-season break at Croft for rounds 16, 17 and 18 of the series on the 29th and 30th of July. Championship leader Ashley Sutton left Oulton Park with a reduced points gap after the last trio of races in Cheshire, a non-finish for the Focus driver in Race Three, after a clash with title rival Tom Ingram, saw his margin brought down to just six points from the Hyundai man. Ten points behind Ingram in third sat Jake Hill, the Laser Tools BMW had set the pace at Oulton and scored two wins. The other victory was taken by Colin Turkington in a similar Team BMW 330e, the three-time champion recovered from disqualification after qualifying to bag the Race Three spoils and was lurking 35 points adrift of Sutton. A change to the driver lineup had taken place at One Motorsport during the summer break, with Will Powell exiting the squad and Jade Edwards taking up the reins aboard the Honda Civic. More upheaval was to be found at Team HARD, Radical ace Darryl De Leon slotted into the seat vacated by Edwards and Michael Crees replaced Bobby Thompson after budget constraints forced him out, the Essex driver had occupied seventh in the Independents’ points table prior to Croft. Nic Hamilton, another member of the Cupra squad, withdrew from the meeting before the action commenced.
Qualifying: Napa Racing UK dominated the top of the timesheet in qualifying as they maintained their 100% record of one of the team’s Ford Focuses qualifying on pole position in 2023. The resurgent Dan Cammish secured the top spot after a difficult couple of meetings ahead of teammates Daniel Rowbottom and championship leader Ashley Sutton. Josh Cook lined up fourth, with Colin Turkington besting Jake Hill on an all-BMW third row. Sutton’s nearest championship challenger Tom Ingram would go from seventh after a late flyer moved the Hyundai up from twelfth as the top sixteen all qualified within a second of pole.
Race One: Dan Cammish aced the start to head the field into Clervaux for the first time after the fast-starting Colin Turkington was boxed in behind Ashley Sutton off the line, which meant that the top six starting order remained the same in the opening corners. A fired-up Jake Hill passed the sister BMW of Turkington further into the lap when the Northern Irishman defended the inside of Tower and Hill cut back on the exit before holding on around the outside through the Jim Clark Esses. Tom Ingram also challenged Turkington for sixth on the outside of the final hairpin ending lap one before making the move stick on the inside of Clervaux as the top four got away together. Cammish soon began opening a gap to his pursuers, whilst Josh Cook challenged Sutton for third at Sunny In for the second time but the Focus defended the place. As Cammish established a race-winning gap out front, the soft tyre-shod Rowbottom and teammate Sutton on mediums circulated together in second and third until the final lap when Rowbottom played the team game and allowed Sutton through to take the runner-up spot. Cammish eventually won by 0.717 seconds as he managed the gap on his soft tyres, Sutton and Rowbottom filled the podium placings. Cook, Hill, Ingram and Turkington ran in a line as they duelled over fourth to seventh places, with Hill's BMW and Ingram's Hyundai the main aggressors. In the end, Cook kept Hill at bay for fourth whilst Ingram survived Turkington’s vigorous attempts to pass the Hyundai in the Complex on the last lap to bag sixth. Turkington’s Team BMW stablemate Stephen Jelley took eighth. whilst Aiden Moffat on the hard tyres held off a long line of cars in ninth for more than half of the race before the soft-tyred Sam Osborne finally breached the Honda’s defence on lap twelve. The Honda was then nudged wide by Aron Taylor-Smith at Sunny In a lap later, which sent the Civic down to thirteenth after getting hung out to dry at Sunny Out.
The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship returned to action after their six-week mid-season break at Croft for rounds 16, 17 and 18 of the series on the 29th and 30th of July. Championship leader Ashley Sutton left Oulton Park with a reduced points gap after the last trio of races in Cheshire, a non-finish for the Focus driver in Race Three, after a clash with title rival Tom Ingram, saw his margin brought down to just six points from the Hyundai man. Ten points behind Ingram in third sat Jake Hill, the Laser Tools BMW had set the pace at Oulton and scored two wins. The other victory was taken by Colin Turkington in a similar Team BMW 330e, the three-time champion recovered from disqualification after qualifying to bag the Race Three spoils and was lurking 35 points adrift of Sutton. A change to the driver lineup had taken place at One Motorsport during the summer break, with Will Powell exiting the squad and Jade Edwards taking up the reins aboard the Honda Civic. More upheaval was to be found at Team HARD, Radical ace Darryl De Leon slotted into the seat vacated by Edwards and Michael Crees replaced Bobby Thompson after budget constraints forced him out, the Essex driver had occupied seventh in the Independents’ points table prior to Croft. Nic Hamilton, another member of the Cupra squad, withdrew from the meeting before the action commenced.
Qualifying: Napa Racing UK dominated the top of the timesheet in qualifying as they maintained their 100% record of one of the team’s Ford Focuses qualifying on pole position in 2023. The resurgent Dan Cammish secured the top spot after a difficult couple of meetings ahead of teammates Daniel Rowbottom and championship leader Ashley Sutton. Josh Cook lined up fourth, with Colin Turkington besting Jake Hill on an all-BMW third row. Sutton’s nearest championship challenger Tom Ingram would go from seventh after a late flyer moved the Hyundai up from twelfth as the top sixteen all qualified within a second of pole.
Race One: Dan Cammish aced the start to head the field into Clervaux for the first time after the fast-starting Colin Turkington was boxed in behind Ashley Sutton off the line, which meant that the top six starting order remained the same in the opening corners. A fired-up Jake Hill passed the sister BMW of Turkington further into the lap when the Northern Irishman defended the inside of Tower and Hill cut back on the exit before holding on around the outside through the Jim Clark Esses. Tom Ingram also challenged Turkington for sixth on the outside of the final hairpin ending lap one before making the move stick on the inside of Clervaux as the top four got away together. Cammish soon began opening a gap to his pursuers, whilst Josh Cook challenged Sutton for third at Sunny In for the second time but the Focus defended the place. As Cammish established a race-winning gap out front, the soft tyre-shod Rowbottom and teammate Sutton on mediums circulated together in second and third until the final lap when Rowbottom played the team game and allowed Sutton through to take the runner-up spot. Cammish eventually won by 0.717 seconds as he managed the gap on his soft tyres, Sutton and Rowbottom filled the podium placings. Cook, Hill, Ingram and Turkington ran in a line as they duelled over fourth to seventh places, with Hill's BMW and Ingram's Hyundai the main aggressors. In the end, Cook kept Hill at bay for fourth whilst Ingram survived Turkington’s vigorous attempts to pass the Hyundai in the Complex on the last lap to bag sixth. Turkington’s Team BMW stablemate Stephen Jelley took eighth. whilst Aiden Moffat on the hard tyres held off a long line of cars in ninth for more than half of the race before the soft-tyred Sam Osborne finally breached the Honda’s defence on lap twelve. The Honda was then nudged wide by Aron Taylor-Smith at Sunny In a lap later, which sent the Civic down to thirteenth after getting hung out to dry at Sunny Out.
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Race Two: A grey, leaden sky threatened to drop its contents as the field formed up for Race Two. Using the soft compound tyre to his advantage, Ashley Sutton outdragged his medium-shod teammate Dan Cammish towards Clervaux before scampering off up the road to a clear victory. Jake Hill drew alongside Josh Cook away from the grid for fourth but the BMW was hemmed in behind Dan Rowbottom’s Napa Ford and the duo were side by side into Clearvaux. Hill's Laser Tools BMW forced Cook wide at Hawthorn and Tom Ingram took the pair of them to go fourth as the BMW straightlined the Chicane. In the pack behind, Cook’s One Motorsport teammate Aiden Moffat was fired onto the grass approaching Clearvaux and the Honda miraculously slid across the circuit between Sam Osborne and assailant Aron Taylor-Smith without contact before carrying on in thirteenth! Up ahead, Cook went the long way around Hill at Tower but the BMW driver didn’t relent and the pair leant on each other through the Jim Clark Esses before Cook finally completed the job at Barcroft. At the end of the opening lap, Rowbottom was forced to defend the inside of the Hairpin from Ingram’s unsuccessful attempt to steal third. Sutton and Cammish quickly started moving away from the fighting and Ingram had to defend from Cook at Tower for the second time after a gravelly approach to Hawthorn made the Hyundai slow through the Chicane on dirty tyres. Within a couple of laps, Ingram had shrugged off Cook's Honda and was back with Rowbottom's Focus. The reigning champion sent his Hyundai up the inside of the Hairpin at the end of the fourth tour in an attempt to claim third, Ingram had his nose ahead over the line to start lap five but the Ford had clung to the outside of the Hyundai through the Hairpin and Rowbottom reclaimed the place into Clervaux. The tussle brought Cook back onto Ingram’s tail for a few laps but the Honda later dropped into the clutches of a squadron of BMWs headed by Jake Hill. Frustratingly for Hill, the BMW spun out of sixth after touching the gravel at Clervaux on lap ten and dropped to eleventh. Ahead of the fighting, Sutton relentlessly sped to victory and the championship leader headed the second Napa Racing UK 1-2-3 finish of the meeting by 7.682 seconds. The sister Focus of Cammish sealed an unflustered second but the third Focus of Dan Rowbottom was kept very honest by Ingram, Cook and Turkington as they completed the top six.
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Race Three: Race two victor Ashley Sutton pulled out ball number six in the Race Three grid draw to place Colin Turkington on pole position and the BMW led off the line as expected. However, an aggressive Josh Cook was soon crawling all over the leading BMW through the opening bends and set himself up for a lead attempt as the field streamed towards Tower but Tom Ingram had a run on the pair of them. Cook dived to the outside of Turkington as the BMW defended its position but the Honda had a twitch under braking and Ingram pounced to take second accelerating through the Jim Clark Esses. Behind the fight amongst the lead trio, there was a scramble at Clervaux as a locked-up Stephen Jelley tapped Dan Cammish into teammate Daniel Rowbottom without their positions changing before Ashley Sutton tried to force his way inside Jelley through Hawthorn, where more contact was made. Championship leader Sutton sustained a front-left puncture and broken steering before grinding to a halt in the entrance to the pitlane, Jelley’s BMW also picked up a puncture. Behind them in the midfield, 2022 Croft double-race winner Daniel Lloyd was also spat out of the pack into the barrier at Hawthorn after losing the rear on cold tyres. The chaos brought out the Safety Car for its first appearance of the day on lap two and an unsighted Rowbottom passed Cook just as the Safety Car was called for but the Focus redressed the places at the Complex. Using the soft tyre, Cook's One Motorsport teammate Aiden Moffat had made great progress in the early stages to climb from seventeenth to eighth before the interruption. The Safety Car peeled off at the end of lap four and Ingram was immediately on the front foot, forcing Turkington to cover the line into Tower and again at Sunny In as the leading BMW sought to build tyre temperature. Once his tyres were in the window, Turkington soon started to pull away with the race's fastest lap on the eighth tour and the BMW driver would go on to seal a dominant fourteenth victory at the venue by 3.242 seconds from Ingram in an equally comfortable second place. Cook took third in his One Motorsport Honda but had Cammish closing right in on the Civic during the closing stages, the Ford having dived past the sister Focus of Rowbottom into Tower on the seventh lap. Jake Hill fell behind Aiden Moffat and Rory Butcher to eighth with his second spin of the day on lap sixteen at Sunny In but the BMW was able to repass Butcher's Toyota for seventh by flagfall. Jade Edwards just missed out on scoring a championship point to mark her return to the One Motorsport squad after racing up to sixteenth from 23rd on the grid using the soft tyres, Ricky Collard’s Toyota staved her off for the final point despite being wheeled off the grid with an oil leak and starting the encounter from the pitlane.
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The championship now moves north of the border to Knockhill on the 12th and 13th of August for rounds 19, 20 and 21. Sutton’s lead in the title race was reduced from 23 points after Race Two to just the six he held in hand from Ingram pre-meeting as the series heads to Scotland. Following his win in the third race, Turkington moved into the top three at the expense of Jake Hill and sits 34 points from the top of the table.
Legends Elite Cup
Legends Elite Cup
The Legends Elite Cup with JLM Lubricants competitors made their second guest appearance on the TOCA package at the weekend. The 5/8ths scale American-style 1930s Chevrolet and Ford pocket rockets, powered by 1200cc Yamaha bike engines, were taking part in a six-round championship contested over the series' trio of guest slots supporting the BTCC in 2023, with two heats and a final taking place on each day. 2022 National championship runner-up Will Gibson headed home a four-car train in the Round 3 final ahead of Simon Griffiths, Nathan Anthony in the Se-Van and Kieran Beaty as one and a half seconds covered the quartet. Championship leader Jack Parker trailed home as the last classified finisher. On Sunday, the Team HARD assisted Connor Mills took advantage of a mid-race mini-downpour to dive into the lead of Heat One at the Hairpin for the penultimate time before last-lap contact between RAF pilot Matt Isherwood and Chris Needham, as they fought over second through the Jim Clark Esses and sent the rest of the field scattering off the road in avoidance, eased the pressure on the victorious Mills. Multi-talented Irishman Robert Barrable came through from the fourteenth row to steal third from Andy Bird by just 0.039 seconds as they crossed the line. Pre-meeting championship leader Jack Parker started eleventh and had climbed up to fifth on lap two before he clipped the Chicane tyre marker and spun into retirement. Fortunately, the pack missed the gyrating Mickel Motorsport car as it spun down the track. Heat Two was formed by reversing the grid of Heat One and Robert Barrable ran away from the outside of the front row to comfortably win a curtailed second encounter. A halt was called on lap five for a multitude of reasons, including Mike Schlup crashing hard into the tyres at Barcroft on lap three after getting hooked up with Kieran Beaty, whilst Dan Pooley slid off at the Complex and dropped fluid on the circuit which meant that calling an early halt was necessary. Heat One winner and new title race leader Connor Mills had risen to fifth behind Gareth Sheridan and Oli Schlup from a ninth-row start by lap two, he then reached second after taking early place holder Stephen Treherne on lap three. Ben Higgins and erstwhile championship leader Jack Parker raced through the pack to be classified fourth and fifth, after starting fifteenth and eighteenth respectively. Saturday final victor Will Gibson started from twelfth but was involved in first-corner contact with Robin Fountain, which dropped him to the back of the field before climbing to nineteenth. Sunday's round four finale was unfortunately cancelled due to a heavy crash at Tower in the preceding Porsche Cayman Sprint Challenge race, which pushed the final past the impending curfew.
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The third and final event for the Elite Cup field is to be held at Knockhill on the 12th and 13th of August, with Connor Mills heading the title chase by thirty points from Robert Barrable.