Dan Cammish led home Ash Sutton in a 1-2 for the Alliance Racing Ford Focus Titanium squad in the second race of the British Touring Car Championship round at Donington Park.
Cammish was the fourth leader of an entertaining race, while early leader Sutton worked his customary miracle to finish second on the hard-compound Goodyear tyres against a sea of competitors on the medium rubber.
Sutton worked his way past the polesitting CPRL Mercedes A35 Saloon of Adam Morgan on the Craner Curves on the opening lap, and the hard-tyre-shod Lancastrian eventually faded to ninth at the finish.
Dan Rowbottom got past team-mate Morgan on the second lap, and Cammish quickly followed him through to move into third.
Sutton now faced challenges from the medium-tyred Rowbottom and Cammish, and the inevitable move from the bearded Midlander came at the Esses on the fourth lap, Cammish then demoting team-mate Sutton at the Goddards hairpin.
Now Cammish went after Rowbottom. He got alongside at the Melbourne hairpin, then again into Goddards, with contact sending the Mercedes wide and allowing Cammish into the lead.
Ashley Sutton, NAPA Racing UK
Photo by: JEP
Tom Ingram, from ninth on the grid, was now moving into the picture in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback, and was up to fourth by lap six of 14 from ninth on the grid.
But despite being armed with medium tyres and a bagful of TOCA Turbo Boost, Ingram could not make a move stick on Sutton, who had just two laps of TTB.
Far from dropping a place, Sutton gained one when the Mercedes of Rowbottom slowed momentarily exiting the Esses with just over four laps remaining, but recovered just in time to maintain third position ahead of Ingram.
By the time Ingram finally got past Rowbottom into the Esses on the penultimate lap for third, Sutton was secure. Up front, Cammish slowed on the run to the finish line, the Valvoline-liveried Focus just 0.437 seconds ahead of the NAPA example.
“You always hope for the best, starting from what you feel is the prime position,” said Cammish of his grid position as the highest-placed runner on soft tyres.
“You’re planning, ‘How do I get through?’ I thought we did a good job of picking our moments and I think we managed it well. Then it was a case of bringing it home, and I managed to get a nice photo-finish for the guys at Valvoline and NAPA!
“Testament to Ash – that was an amazing drive.”
Tom Ingram, Team VERTU
Photo by: JEP
An unimpressed Ingram was clearly inferring afterwards that the Hyundais are lacking straightline speed, and the reigning champion has dropped to third in the standings, one point behind Cammish and a whopping 97 adrift of Sutton.
Behind fourth-placed Rowbottom, Ricky Collard moved his Excelr8 Hyundai past the Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon of Dexter Patterson at Redgate on the final lap for fifth.
Aron Taylor-Smith was seventh in his Speedworks Motorsport-run Laser Tools Toyota Corolla GR Sport from Aiden Moffat (PMR Audi) and Morgan.
Chris Smiley and his Restart Racing Hyundai nabbed the final spot in the top 10 from Daryl De Leon’s West Surrey Racing BMW on the last lap, and the Northern Irishman was rewarded when Cammish drew him on reversed-grid pole position for the final race.
BTCC Donington Park – Race 2 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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