BTCC & Mini 7 Racing Club Thruxton 8th & 9th June 2024

HILL AND SUTTON SCORE HEAVILY AT HAMPSHIRE SPEEDBOWL
The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship held rounds 10, 11 and 12 of the 2024 season at the ultra-fast Thruxton circuit in Hampshire on the 8th and 9th of June. Quadruple champion Ashley Sutton’s run of seven successive podiums came to an end at the last meeting at Snetterton but the Napa Racing UK pilot was still sat at the top of the championship tree by 10 points as the series made the journey along the A303. Jake Hill came to Hampshire riding the crest of a wave after taking pole position and two race wins in Norfolk, including overcoming a ten-second false start penalty to triumph in Race Two. Tom Ingram opened his 2024 campaign with a double victory at Donington Park, whilst four-time title winner Colin Turkington’s BMW took a pair of wins at Brands Hatch and both sought to recapture their momentum after testing meetings last time out but the BMW driver sat second in the title race by a single point from the tied Ingram and Hill. Acknowledged Thruxton king Josh Cook has moved from Honda to Toyota machinery for this season and the Bath ace aimed to add to his ten race wins at the high-speed venue. Former World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff and teammate Andrew Watson, last year’s Jack Sears Trophy winner, have both shown top-ten pace in the official Speedworks Toyota Corollas and the former sealed his first BTCC victory in twenty years during Snetterton’s third race. Cook’s teammate Aidan Moffat and Excelr8 Hyundai’s Ronan Pearson have each taken a Race Three victory this season, with Pearson’s triumph his breakthrough result. Sutton’s Ford Focus teammates Dan Cammish and Daniel Rowbottom are also more than capable of setting the pace, along with the third BMW of Adam Morgan and the Lancashire man has tasted victory in Hampshire before. Bobby Thompson was a last-minute withdrawal due to financial pressures, having impressed on his debut with West Surrey Racing at Snetterton with a podium finish and was the second-highest points scorer of the weekend.

Qualifying: A new qualifying system for 2024 sees the classification from Free Practice 2 split into two groups from the odds and evens’ fastest times. The top six from each group move forward into Q2 and from there the six fastest progress into Q3 where the battle for pole position takes place. Group One: Dan Cammish topped the opening ten-minute spell 0.168 seconds clear of FP2 pacesetter Tom Ingram, Josh Cook and Adam Morgan. Championship leader Ash Sutton made it through in fifth with his last lap of session after aborting his first attempt, whilst Andrew Watson’s Toyota was the last to progress. Watson’s illustrious teammate Rob Huff was just 0.083 seconds from a place in Q2 but went out with the Restart Racing pair Chris Smiley and Scott Sumpton. Ronan Pearson didn’t set a time after grinding to a halt in the pitlane with a throttle fault on his Hyundai at the start of the session. Group Two: Daniel Rowbottom had a handy 0.377 seconds in hand from Tom Chilton to be quickest of the second group. Championship contender Jake Hill went through in third, whilst Áron Taylor-Smith was the first of the Evans Halshaw Astras in fourth despite a high-speed incident at Goodwood which rearranged his rear wheel alignment. Stablemate Mikey Doble was fifth and second-in-the-championship Colin Turkington’s BMW scraped through in sixth. 2024 race winner Aidan Moffat, Sam Osborne, Darryl DeLeon and Nick Halstead were the four to fall at the first hurdle. Q2: Rowbottom’s good form continued as he topped the ten minutes of Q2 by 0.226 seconds from Tom Ingram to go into the top-six pole position shootout. Jake Hill was also safely through in third ahead of Tom Chilton, whilst Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton made it three Napa Racing UK Ford Focuses in the battle for pole position. Adam Morgan failed to reach Q3 by just 0.009 seconds and was joined on the sidelines by Josh Cook and Andrew Watson’s Toyotas, whilst four-time champion Colin Turkington would surprisingly start away from his main championship contenders in tenth. Mikey Doble qualified a tenth ahead of his teammate Áron Taylor-Smith, who ended up last of the dozen competitors after a quick fix was performed on his Astra. The final ten-minute Q3 mini-session for the fastest six remaining drivers would sort the first three rows of the grid. Tom Ingram, running #100 for the weekend to celebrate Bristol Street Motors’ centenary, secured pole position for what coincidentally marked his 100th race with Excelr8 by 0.265 seconds as each driver's best times came from their first push lap attempts. An under-the-weather Dan Cammish’s time was the target the Hyundai driver had to beat to head the grid, 0.024 seconds was all that separated Jake Hill from a front-row start despite two huge lock ups approaching the Club Chicane and the Laser Tools BMW was the first to set the benchmark time. Hill had just 0.010 seconds in hand from the second Napa Racing UK Focus in the classification of Daniel Rowbottom after a big slide at Church cost the Ford valuable momentum. Another 0.144 back was championship leader Ash Sutton in the third of the Napa Focuses as he tried to overcome his one second’s worth of hybrid usage per lap and was joined by Tom Chilton’s Hyundai on the third row as he contested Q3 for the first time this year.

Race One: Jake Hill made a lightning start from the second row to bolt into the lead by Allard, whilst the wheelspinning Tom Ingram was outdragged from pole by the Napa Fords of fellow front row starter Dan Cammish, Daniel Rowbottom and championship leader Ash Sutton after a sluggish getaway. Sutton soon cleared Rowbottom after the Worcestershire man had oversteer through Village, whilst Ingram had a run on the pair of them and Sutton had to get his elbows out racing towards Church to hold the Hyundai back. Rowbotton had slipped back to fifth when the Hyundai went by before Ingram’s Bristol Street Motors teammate Tom Chilton muscled past into the Club Chicane for the first time. Andrew Watson clobbered a Club Chicane tyre bundle after trying to exit the sequence beside Morgan’s BMW for eighth place at the end of lap one to bring out Safety Car and eradicate the impressive 1.894-second lead Hill’s BMW had built. Hill waited for as long as he dared before launching away at the resumption of racing on lap five and a superb restart lap saw him 1.121 seconds up the road at the completion of the tour. Rowbottom attacked Chilton immediately and regained fifth place through Allard, whilst Cook and Morgan also pounced to further demote the Hyundai by the Complex but the BMW couldn’t make the move stick. Morgan mirrored Rowbottom’s move into Allard a lap later but couldn’t stop Chilton from repassing him into the Complex. Up front, Cammish used his Hybrid to reduce Hill’s lead to half a second before the Laser Tools BMW took his lead back out to 1.342 seconds on lap seven. Also on the seventh tour, Ingram used his remaining Hybrid allocation to get a run on Sutton up Woodham Hill but was forced to the outside line and had to slot back into line at the chicane. The top five became equi-distant as the quintet moved away from Cook in sixth before the fifth-placed Rowbottom also began to be dropped. Hill, Cammish, Sutton and Ingram contracted together as the race wore on but the status quo remained to the flag with Hill managing his lead to be victorious for the fifteenth time in his BTCC career by 1.216 seconds. Cammish, Sutton and Ingram filled second, third and fourth positions as 1.302 seconds covered the trio. Behind the fourth-placed Hyundai on-the-road was the third Napa Focus home in the hands of Rowbottom but he would be demoted two spots for his naughty pass of Tom Chilton at the restart, the Focus being judged to be overlapping with the Hyundai. Circuit expert Josh Cook thus completed the top five ahead of Chilton’s Hyundai, with Rowbottom slotting in ahead of the WSR BMWs of Adam Morgan and Colin Turkington. Leading Independent Árón Taylor-Smith completed the top ten in his Vauxhall Astra.

Race Two: Jake Hill leapt off the line into the lead at the start of the sixteen-lapper, whilst Napa duo Ash Sutton and Dan Cammish bounced off each other as the title race leader came up alongside his stablemate before making an assertive dive through into second at the Complex. Sutton reeled in Hill around the remainder of the lap and was giving the BMW some heat into the chicane for the first time, whilst Tom Ingram went around the outside of Cammish to complete the opening lap in third but cut the middle part of the chicane to execute the pass. Josh Cook had also passed the Napa Ford by Allard but Cammish fought back into Campbell, the Toyota then had to see off attention from Rowbottom. The top four were together by the end of lap two but a huge dose of oversteer for Sutton through Goodwood on lap four cost the Focus a few car lengths but worse was to follow after an earlier touch with the back of Hill’s BMW caused his splitter to start delaminating. Ingram took advantage of the wounded Focus’ slight loss of pace to demote his championship rival approaching the chicane for the fifth time. The Hyundai set off after Hill and used his Hybrid to breeze past up Woodham Hill on lap eight and theoretically claimed his 30th BTCC win as he took the flag by 2.628 seconds from Hill and Cammish, who had passed his stricken teammate up Woodham Hill for the seventh time and finished 1.262 seconds down on Hill. Rowbottom also passed his Napa stablemate Sutton for fourth into the chicane with just over three laps to go. Cook fended off the WSR BMW pair after falling behind Rowbottom’s Ford out the back on lap eight. Colin Turkington passed his Team BMW partner Adam Morgan down to Church for the ninth time to take seventh and eighth respectively. Áron Taylor-Smith doubled up on Independents victories with ninth and Rob Huff pulled off a great around-the-outside pass of Tom Chilton into the chicane for the penultimate time to grab tenth place. Ingram was subsequently docked two spots for his chicane opening lap greed so Hill was awarded his fourth victory of 2024 from Cammish and moved the BMW driver to the top of the championship standings, with Ingram reclassified third.

Race Three: Ball number eight was drawn to set the reversed grid positions for Race Three and an all-BMW front row headed the grid, with Adam Morgan on pole and Colin Turkington second. Josh Cook fancied his chances from third and had his buddy Adh Sutton with him on row two. Two more Napa Fords in the hands of Daniel Rowbottom and Dan Cammish lined up on the third row ahead of double race winner Jake Hill in seventh. Despite being dropped to third in the Race Two results, Tom Ingram still had to start from eighth spot and take the race winner’s Hybrid allowance. Morgan’s BMW held sway away from the line, whilst Cook slid up the inside of Turkington into the Complex before the BMW and Rowbottom clashed at Seagrave contesting third. The contact sent the Focus into the barrier but was able to extricate itself to remove the threat of a Safety Car. Cammish leapt on the Northern Irishman’s loss of momentum in the incident to snatch third and his stablemate Sutton also took fourth from the BMW into Allard starting lap two. The four-time champion reeled in his teammate throughout the second lap before towing past up Woodham Hill to take third place. Hill and Ingram went into battle at the Complex for the second time over sixth place and leading independent Áron Taylor-Smith tore past the pair of them as they slowed each other down at the exit before the Hyundai finally completed its move on the BMW at Noble. Ingram flung his Hyundai back ahead of the Astra through Seagrave on lap four and Hill took his chance to further demote the Vauxhall before Noble. Morgan continued to lead under pressure from Cook before the Toyota slipped down the order on the seventh lap as a charging Sutton came through at Village, Cammish followed his stablemate by towards Church and Turkington pounced up Woodham Hill. The Toyota then lost out to Ingram and Hill next time around in a nightmarish couple of laps for the Bath man, with Hill almost taking Ingram at the same time but the Hyundai held on. Sutton moved up to challenge the leading BMW and on lap nine drove around the outside Cobb to give the Focus the inside of Seagrave for the lead, an opportunistic Cammish followed his teammate around outside of Noble into second. The Safety Car put in an appearance on lap ten after Tom Chilton stopped smokily at Green's, which extended the race distance to nineteen laps. Sutton drew away from Cammish’s sister Napa Focus after the restart to record his 40th BTCC victory, his maiden triumph in 2024 and retook his place at the top of the championship tree by five points. Cammish came home 4.449 seconds adrift of the victor and was comfortably clear of the scrap for third, which went the way of Ingram’s Hyundai after a bold outside pass of Morgan into the chicane for the last time but one. Contact between the pair saw them both slew sideways and the Exclr8 i30 took the shortcut through the sequence having successfully completed the same move on Turkington at the end of lap sixteen. Morgan attempted to reclaim third racing to the flag and was just 0.077 seconds shy, double winner Hill and Josh Cook’s Toyota finished right with the Hyundai and BMW in fifth and sixth as 0.414 covered the quartet. Turkington slipped back from his front-row starting position to seventh after losing out to the Laser Tools BMW and LKQ Toyota on the outside of Noble and the inside of Church respectively during the seventeenth lap. Top Independent Árón Taylor-Smith completed a hat-trick of wins in the division in eighth, with Rob Huff and Ronan Pearson rounding out the top ten.

The BTCC now moves onto Oulton Park over the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd of June, with Sutton nursing a five-point lead from Hill in the championship standings.
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Dunlop Mini Se7en and Miglia Challenges supported by Mini Spares
The Dunlop Mini Se7en and Miglia Challenges supported by Mini Spares made their third guest appearance on the BTCC support package at the Hampshire racetrack and proved to be a huge hit with the crowd once more. Fields of 32 Miglias and 37 Se7ens proved the lasting popularity of the classic Mini and the draw of live ITV4 coverage no doubt tempted many to enter.

Mini Miglias: Poleman Andrew Jordan went from third to first up Woodham Hill on lap one of Race One and quickly broke the tow to the chasing pack. Jeff Smith worked hard to steadily reel him in during the race’s second half and suddenly six cars were in the lead train with two minutes to go. However, Lee Roberts clobbered a chicane tyre stack and rolled to bring an end to the contest which was brewing up nicely.  Jordan was credited with the win from Jeff Smith and Rupert Deeth charged up the order to claim third place from ninth on the grid, ahead of multiple champion Aaron Smith. Scott Kendall and Kane Astin both came through well after out-of-position starts to complete the top six from the seventh and sixth rows respectively. The huge slipstream effect had a massive impact on the grid for Sunday’s race, which was determined by the fastest laps set during Race One. Winner Jordan started from a lowly thirteenth on the grid after being out on his own for much of Race One, whilst pole position went to Rupert Deeth after his fight up from ninth. Deeth and Kane Astin got away evenly from the front row but Aaron Smith snatched away the lead in the middle of the Complex. However, Saturday victor Jordan drove an amazing opening lap from the thirteenth grid slot to reach sixth through the Complex, before moving into fifth by Village and emerged from the Club Chicane with the lead after racing up Woodham Hill four-wide with Aaron Smith, Jeff Smith and Martin Wager! The pack didn’t let him escape this time and Aaron Smith slid up the inside at the same spot a lap later to take up the running but, back in the pack, Nick Paddy was turned around passing the pits and slammed into the armco. Smith and Jordan swapped places heading into Church just before the Safety Car was deployed and the red flag quickly followed. There would be a single file restart fought out over eight minutes to decide the result, with Jordan and Smith fighting all the way to the flag. Jordan completed the victory double by 0.330 seconds, having held the inside line resolutely up Woodham Hill for the last time. Deeth used all of the track and a little bit more in a four-wide pass of Astin, Wager and Jeff Smith to bag third with three minutes left. Three-time Se7en champion Smith led home Wager and Astin in fourth, fifth and sixth.

Mini Se7ens: Polesitter Mike Jordan led the opener from start to finish but that wasn’t the full story as Joe Thompson, Ross Billison and Damien Harrington made him work very hard to defend his lead. In the S-Class contest that shared the grid, Frazer Hack and Matthew Ayres fought amongst themselves for the category win until the last lap when they were joined by Michael Winkworth, defending champion Jonathon Page and Oliver Birkett but Hack was able to hold on for victory. Like son Andrew in the Miglias, opening race victor Jordan was condemned to a start well down the grid for Race Two as the pack towed themselves around to faster lap times in his wake. Joe Thompson started from pole position with returning 2022 champion Connor O’Brien alongside. The leading cars were almost five-abreast heading for the Complex for the first time and Spencer Wanstall grabbed the lead from sixth on the grid but the Race One winner Mike Jordan went all the way around the outside of five cars under braking for the chicane to claim the race lead at the end of lap one! The 66-year-old then broke away from the pack but Thompson and Ross Billison soon came back at Jordan. Thompson was with the leader at the halfway point but, unfortunately, the race didn’t reach a climactic ending as Thompson pitted moments after a brave bid for the lead with four minutes left resulted in a biff into the back of Jordan entering the Club Chicane. That left Jordan to nurse a comfortable lead from Billison, with the reigning champion duly taking the flag by 7.288 seconds. The final step on the podium boiled down to a straight fight between multiple Miglia champion Aaron Smith, in Graeme Davis’ regular mount that Colin Turkington had used in the season opener at Donington Park, and Wanstall - once they’d dropped Darren Thomas. Wanstall dived inside Smith into the Complex for the final time to seal third place. There was a gloves-off scrap between Frazer Hack and Matthew Ayres for the S-Class spoils, which came down to the Club Chicane on the last lap when Hack squeezed inside Ayres to steal away the class win by just 0.032 seconds after Ayres fought back in a drag race to the line. Michael Winkworth and Jonathon Page scrapped just as hard over third, with Winkworth taking it after draughting past the reigning S-Class champion on the penultimate lap.

The Mini 7 Racing Club is next in action on the island of Anglesey over the weekend of the 6th and 7th of July.