Halfords Yuasa Racing’s Dan Cammish admitted he had “nothing left” on his lap which put him just two-thousandths off polesitter Tom Ingram’s time in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton.
Cammish had topped the opening two practice sessions and the majority of the half-hour qualifying session before Ingram’s late effort secured the first pole position for the new-for-2019 Toyota Corolla.
Despite the obvious disappointment of missing out by such a narrow margin, Cammish said he was happy with his and the team’s performance to continue form after a strong Oulton Park round before the summer break.
“We do have good performance and I think I’m driving well and the car’s in a good place,” Cammish told TouringCars.Net.
“Ultimately today we’ve missed out by the smallest of margins. But on the face of it, I’ve done a lap that’s under the lap record, I did two or three that were very close to that. I topped FP1 and FP2, and I’ve been beaten by a mega lap from Tom [Ingram].
“That’s no bad thing, that’s just the way it is. I think as long as you can get out and say, ‘That was about everything,’ then you can be proud and that was about everything.
“If my delta says I should have gone four tenths quicker I’d be kicking myself but it says I shouldn have gone 0.028 quicker, which basically means naff all – there was nothing left.
“I’m happy. It’s hard to start at the front of a touring car race, and getting a pole, that doesn’t come around very often. And I’m consistently knocking on the door of it.”
With title rivals standings leaders Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan down in fifth and seventh positions respectively, Cammish admits he has a “mega” opportunity to gain in the championship battle as well as a race win.
“We’ve got a mega opportunity – it’s hard to gain on Colin [Turkington] and [Andrew] Jordan – but outside of that we’ve basically been third best for the last few rounds,” he explained.
“I got off to a bad start this season and I was a long way behind after round two, but now I’m only 20 points behind third now. I’d like to think after this weekend I’ll be somewhere in that mix, then we can think about the BMWs after that.
“I think we’re in a good place – tomorrow we’ve got a very good chance. I dare say we’ve got a very good chance of winning the race.”
With the highest-placed rear-wheel drive machine of Colin Turkington down in fifth, Cammish is also encouraged that it should be a straight fight between him and Ingram into turn one at least.
“I’m still worried about the start!
“It’ll be one to watch that, because he’s starting fifth tomorrow. It’s quite a drag to turn one, unlike Oulton Park where it’s a very short shoot.
“A longer drag, does that give him more of a chance? I don’t know. I’d like to think he can’t get to me from P5, but I wouldn’t bet against it.
“My job is to get a better start than Ingram and worry about that and then we’ll see. It’s nice knowing [they’re behind] because if they start second and you’re on pole then you’re finished.
“Tom and myself have got a chance not to see the BMW in the first race which would be nice, so we’ll try and make some hay while the sun shines.”