Cammish raises BTCC race manipulation prospect

Multiple British Touring Car Championship race winner Dan Cammish has suggested that teams could be forced to manipulate results because of the series’ new tyre regulations.

The Snetterton race one winner reckons that a tactical dropping off the podium in race one could be the way to go, to avoid being forced to run the hard-compound tyre in race two.

A tweak to the rules for this season meant that only the top three from race one at each event – down from the top 10 in 2024 – are compelled to start race two on the hardest remaining available tyre from their race day allocation.

This has been compounded at the past two rounds by the soft Goodyear being designated as the standard tyre, with the hard as the option compound that must be used in one race.

At Brands Hatch, Charles Rainford was the highest-placed race one podium finisher in the follow-up, with seventh place; last time out at Snetterton it was Ash Sutton, Cammish’s team-mate in the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST squad, in 10th.

Cammish set the fastest lap of race day on his way to victory in race one at Snetterton with a 1m54.935s, while the quickest all day on the hard tyres was a 1m56.611s from Tom Ingram’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai in race two.

“There’s some interesting things going on in this championship,” Cammish told Autosport. “I couldn’t believe when the whole grid [other than the top three] was on softs in race two that we’re in a situation now where I’m not sure if you want to be on the podium in race one.

“We’ll go away and really think about that strategy, because I was on pole, we’ve been fast all weekend, and I’ve scored less points than some people who have maybe not had the outright pace that we’ve had, because of how the system works.

“Ultimately this is all about scoring the most points, so I think we need to look at that. This tyre offset of hards and softs, I’m not sure if it’s helping anyone.

“I think medium to soft would be fine, but hard to soft you’ve almost got two different championships going on. I don’t know if that’s really what the fans want but hey, it’s not for me to say.”

This weekend’s round at Thruxton is contested entirely on the hard tyres because of the circuit’s characteristics of predominantly high-speed corners, while the following two events at Oulton Park and Croft feature a return of the soft/hard combination used at Brands and Snetterton. But the final four fixtures are fought out on compounds just one step apart, as was the opening round at Donington Park.

Cammish also expressed his relief that the investigation into a suspected false start that could have cost him victory exonerated him when it was found that he had only inched forward after the lights had gone out.

Coming after his error at Brands Hatch, which cost a likely victory, a penalty would have been tough to take.

“The fact that they took that long to deliberate in the first place suggests if it’s that difficult, surely there’s got to be a benefit of the doubt,” he said.

“Thankfully they chose in my favour, which I’m grateful for, because that would have been a kick after Brands.”