NAPA Racing UK made it 15 podiums for the season at Oulton Park as the battle for the 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship reached the half-way stage.
The Ford team headed for the picturesque Cheshire circuit on a high following a strong weekend at Thruxton in which Ash Sutton grabbed a first win of the season and Dan Cammish scored a hat-trick of second place finishes.
PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING
Carrying that pace into the Oulton Park weekend, the Alliance Racing-run squad was right at the sharp end from the start as Dan Rowbottom topped the times in free practice and come qualifying, he joined Sutton and Cammish in making it through to the Quick Six element of the session and the fight for pole position.
Despite his lack of hybrid as championship leader, Sutton produced a storming lap to earn a place in the front row of the grid, with Cammish just behind in third and Rowbottom taking fifth – only missing out on the second row by 0.005s. Sam Osborne would drop out in Q1 to end up in 17th place on the grid for race one.
RACES 1, 2 AND 3
That opening race saw NAPA Racing UK maintain its run of podium finishes as Sutton and Cammish took the finish in second and third, with the former having pushed hard in the early stages to try and grab the lead from Tom Ingram – at one stage nosing ahead at the hairpin.
Cammish meanwhile followed them home in third for a fourth successive podium finish and grabbed the bonus point on offer for fastest lap, whilst Rowbottom looked to have made it a 2-3-4 for the team when he crossed the line close behind having taken advantage of an error by Jake Hill to make up a spot mid-race.
However, a 30 second penalty handed out after the race for damaged bodywork on his car saw him demoted back down to 15th place, one spot ahead of Osborne who had been the only one of the four to run the slower hard compound tyre.
Race two would prove to be one of mixed emotions, with Sutton running in a strong third in the early stages on the hard compound tyre before he sustained damage to his car that forced him to come into the pits for repairs.
That meant he went from fighting wheel-to-wheel for second place to a 16th place finish and a no score, leaving Cammish to lead the charge for more silverware.
Cammish looked good to maintain his run of podiums as the #27 Focus held third until the final lap when Hill’s BMW was able to edge ahead to demote him to fourth.
Despite the fact he too was on the hard tyre, Rowbottom drove well to fight his way from 15th on the grid to finish inside the top ten in ninth, whilst Osborne – the only one of the four now on the soft tyre – was able to break into the points in 15th.
The final race before the summer break would again provide a mixed bag of results for the team, with Cammish maintaining his impressive run of consistent finishes as he took the flag in fifth place – making it eight top fives in the last nine races to sit fourth in the championship standings.
Rowbottom followed him home in sixth after a battling performance that saw him race forwards from ninth on the grid although there was frustration for both Sutton and Osborne as they failed to score.
Sutton had been running seventh behind Rowbottom when he was forced to pit with bodywork rubbing against a tyre after clipping a tyre stack, leaving him with just a single point to his name for fastest lap, whilst Osborne was unable to finish after bringing his car into the pits to retire.
MINI CHALLENGE
Oulton Park would also host the latest two rounds of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE, where the highlights came courtesy of Cameron Richardson in the JCW Sport category.
Despite a tricky qualifying session that saw him have to settle for fourth in class, Richardson was fighting for third on the road when a small mistake at the chicane dropped him away from the lead pack, although he would still be classified in third due to the invitational status of a car ahead.
Richardson then went one better in race two however as he secured a solid second place to head into the summer break sitting second in the points.
In the JCW class, Lewis Selby extended his lead in the Directors Cup standings with a seventh class win of the campaign in the opening race, where he also secured a solid eighth overall ahead of team-mate Jamie Osborne.
The roles were then reversed in the second race as Osborne took the flag in seventh spot with Selby in ninth, but a post-race penalty for an on-track clash dropped Osborne back to ninth in the results and left Selby with another top eight result.
STANDINGS
Sutton remains the best placed NAPA Racing UK driver in the BTCC standings in third spot, with the team continuing to lead the Teams’ Championship. In the MINI CHALLENGE, Osborne sits fifth in the points, with Selby in seventh and Cam second in the JCW Sport class.
NEXT STOP
The championships head into the summer break until Croft on the 27/28 July.
