BTCC 2022: Sutton and Cammish enjoy bumper weekend

It was a good weekend for the Ford Focus duo of NAPA Racing UK teammates Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton, as the pair took a win apiece at the Thruxton BTCC round and scored the squad’s first-ever one-two finish.

It means reigning champion Sutton is only six points adrift from championship leader Colin Turkington with just six races remaining.

Cammish back on top

After Cammish took a season out of the BTCC last year, he’s not enjoyed quite the success of his first run in the series but put all that behind him with a lights-to-flag win in the first race at Thruxton.

There was drama aplenty behind Cammish. Jake Hill, Sutton and Josh Cook made contact into the first chicane before more paint swapping later on the same lap meant Cook spun out of contention.

Tom Chilton and Ricky Collard also suffered from contact on the opening lap, with the result being Gordon Shedden’s Honda Civic Type R emerging in second position. Sutton eventually managed to settle into third, earning his 60th BTCC career podium from just 199 starts.

Cammish lets Sutton past

Cammish again dominated the second race with his teammate Sutton following in his wake. But with the championship at stake, the NAPA Racing team ordered the drivers to switch positions with two laps remaining. Shedden followed them home in third.

In a nice bit of symmetry, this was Sutton’s 200th BTCC race and Shedden’s 400th.

After the race, Cammish and Sutton were clearly pleased to bag the valuable points.

As Cammish pointed out: “We got that first double podium so it was a great start to the weekend. We had a fantastic second race with another great start. We led from the front and I had no doubt we were going to bring that home, but it was the right choice and if this makes the difference then it will all be worth it.”

Ash Sutton said: “If you need a team-mate, then Dan [Cammish] is the man for that. He’s just shown that he’s supporting the campaign and hopefully soon I can repay the favour.”

Thruxton maestro strikes again

Here’s a good stat for you - Josh Cook has a total of 18 race wins in the BTCC, with 10 of those coming at Thruxton after his success in the reverse-grid finale.

Not that it was plain sailing for him. The Honda Civic Type R driver had to get past the Team BMW duo of Turkington and Stephen Jelley, but from there never looked back, eventually finishing an impressive 2.6 seconds ahead of second-placed Turkington, with Jelley in third.