Beavis Morgan sponsorship
- NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton takes dominant win and fastest lap
- Rd20 contact spoils Dan Cammish’s weekend, limits to P7 best
- Superb season-best P9 and double points finish for Ollie Jackson
- Consistency, speed but no reward for Sam Osborne in each race
Ash Sutton produced a dominant, near lights-to-flag, victory during round 21 of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season at a red-hot Snetterton 300 Circuit on Sunday, 14th August, to secure his and NAPA Racing UK’s second win in as many events.
Starting the last of the weekend’s three races from pole position, Sutton made a good start but he was somehow edged back to second out of Riches by Dan Rowbottom’s Honda Civic. It didn’t take long for the response to come, though, with the No.1 Ford Focus moving back through at Agostini.
Never headed thereafter, his lead of 0.7 seconds at the start of lap two was built-on lap by lap and his eventual winning margin was 4.5 seconds for the Beavis Morgan sponsored Motorbase Performance-run squad. Sutton also claimed the fastest lap of the race.
Beginning raceday at the scorching hot Norfolk track with ninth place in round 19, having qualified 11th quickest, Sutton went on to finish ninth again in round 20 after battling back from a lap one incident which also involved team-mate Dan Cammish.
It really was a weekend of what could have been, not for the first time this season, for Cammish after a strong qualifying – the fastest of the Motorbase drivers with the eighth best time – and a solid and competitive seventh place in race one, achieved after passing Rowbottom on lap three.
Rightly aiming to push towards the podium in race two, and with the car to do it, everything went awry at the second corner while he was running in seventh place, contact triggering an incident which involved both NAPA Racing UK Fords.
Cammish came off worst, plummeting down the order outside the top 20 and eventually working his way back through to finish in 18th. Starting so far back in race three, he did all he could to take the chequered flag just outside the points in 16th position.
The sunshine at Snetterton certainly shone on Ollie Jackson who produced a fantastic season-best ninth place in the last of Sunday’s three races, the Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan driver charging through from 13th on the grid after a similarly strong performance in the preceding contest.
In race one he gained six places on a superb opening lap, moving up from 25th on the grid – brake bias troubles limiting qualifying – into 19th place. Although edged back after an early Safety Car he fought back to 18th. Serving up another terrific start in race two, storming into 10th on lap one, he finished 13th and therefore only missed the top 12 ‘reverse grid’ draw for race three by one place.
Team-mate Sam Osborne was somewhat frustrated after qualifying, feeling he didn’t get the most out of the car that was available to him, but from mid-distance in race one he started to make some steps forward. Racing strongly, a late battle with Josh Cook was the highlight and Osborne only just missed out on a top 20 finish after trading places with the Honda driver a couple of times.
From 21st on the grid in round 20, Osborne didn’t have the best of the first lap and slipped back three places. Recovering to 22nd before a mid-race Safety Car, he broke into 20th position with a few laps to go. Starting on row 10 for round 21, he raced well into 17th place by lap six but on lap nine he was put off the circuit twice in succession – ultimately recovering to finish in 20th spot.
Oly Collins – Motorbase Performance Team Manager:
“It was great to finish the weekend off like that, a fantastic, dominant display from Ash in race three showing what could have been this weekend. That win keeps Ash in the title fight. Unfortunately, the RWD cars were untouchable again this weekend and played with us a bit, but we did have more pace than we got to show with numerous innocent incidents over the weekend preventing us from showing the full pace, which is frustrating. We’ve got nine races left with plenty to play for.”
Ash Sutton – NAPA Racing UK, No.1:
“If I’m honest we made the exact same settings in terms of changes for race two, but the contact and damage we had with Dan put all the alignment out and we were lucky to get back to P9. If I had that race car [from Rd21] in race two, it would’ve been a different story. It’s just mega, I can’t thank NAPA Racing UK enough. For the first couple of laps we set-up for the long term, long race, so she was a bit lively. I saw Jason [Plato] just closing the gap and I thought, I’ve got to be patient with this. Then his tyres fell away and we carried on – put the head down and set some quali laps.”
Dan Cammish – NAPA Racing UK, No.9:
“It’s pretty tough to take what happened this weekend, we had the speed and the car to really do something. We got everything we could out of the car in qualifying, seventh in race one was good and I really felt I could compete and everything was positive. We definitely had the pace to move forward in race two but then the contact happened at Turn Two and it all unraveled from there. I really feel we’ve got the car in a better place so I’ve just got to dust myself down and try and focus on the rest of the season.”
Ollie Jackson – Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan, No.48:
“We’ve had some better luck this weekend and I’m a lot more used to the car now and the extra weight [from the Hybrid system], I like how the car is handling. We had a bit of a problem with the brake balance in qualifying, and we then realised it had been a problem in practice as well, so it’s quite gratifying to turn up with a few tweaks and come through with three strong races. It’s great to take the first top 10 of the season, it’s where I feel I should be and hopefully we’ve turned a corner now. We’ve definitely got a much better understanding of the car.”
Sam Osborne – Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan, No.77:
“I’m a bit disappointed really as we had some serious pace this weekend. The last race was looking pretty decent but then two of the rear-wheel drive cars decided to fire us off, which isn’t exactly what you need. We had some nice pace though, I was up alongside DanCam [Cammish] and [Gordon] Shedden and well up for it battling with them. We had some good pace in qualifying as well but just didn’t make the most of it. Overall, we made a step in the right direction.”
Thruxton Circuit will welcome the BTCC just a couple of weeks from now, over the weekend of 27th/28th August, for the second visit of the season to the Hampshire speedbowl.
2022 BTCC Drivers Championship
4th Ash Sutton, 257pts; 12th Dan Cammish, 109pts;
22nd Ollie Jackson, 19pts; 25th Sam Osborne, 1pt
2022 BTCC Manufacturers/Constructors Championship
3rd Motorbase Performance/Ford, 480pts
2022 BTCC Teams Championship
3rd NAPA Racing UK, 364pts; 13th Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan, 24pts
2022 Jack Sears Trophy
4th Sam Osborne, 240pts
For all the latest news regarding Motorbase Performance visit www.motorbaseperformance.co.uk
NEXT EVENT: THRUXTON 27-28 AUG https://www.btcc.net/calendar/thruxton-2/