Halfords Yuasa Racing’s Dan Cammish said he was proud to start his 2020 British Touring Car Championship season with a “bounce back” win at Donington Park.
The 2019 runner-up noted he was keen to put last year behind him yesterday when he qualified on the front-row behind reigning champion Colin Turkington.
With Team Dynamics forced to change the differential on his Honda Civic Type R just minutes before qualifying, Cammish told ITV he was even more proud to secure the victory.
“What a way to start eh? That’s what you call a bounce-back, isn’t it?
“Really proud of the guys, as I said yesterday when they got me out [in qualifying] after the differential problem, putting the car on the front row and then racing well today,” he said.
“I always knew Ash [Sutton] would be very aggressive with Colin [Turkington], I was banking on it to be honest.
“When he made his move I made mine as well, and I made it stick. I had a bit of a haiy moment, I almost dropped it at the Old Hairpin which would have been a bit embarrassing when you’ve got that much of a gap due to the squabble behind.
“But I gathered it up and hung on until the end.”
After initially losing out on the run down to turn one, Cammish jumped into the lead by virtue of an opportunistic move in which he capitalised on contact between leaders Sutton and Turkington.
“It was a really ballsy move from Ash to go around the outside of Colin up the hill but he made it stick,” Cammish said.
“Once he’d opened the corner up for himself I think he’d forgot about me, he actually got a bit of a tap.
“I just came off the brake and drove into the gap to be honest. Then he tried to squeeze me across and I thought ‘you know what, not today, I’m not having it.’
“I hung onto it and off we go, and then chaos ensued unfortunately for Ash.”
With a late safety car to recover Nic Hamilton’s stricken Volkswagen CC from the final chicane, the gap to Turkington closed up with three laps remaining, but Cammish felt he could use his front-wheel drive tyre temperature to his advantage on the restart.
“I kicked myself a little bit for nearly dropping it at the Old Hairpin but after that incident I had a bit of a gap,” he explained.
“The rear was a little bit loose, yesterday it was planted, today it wasn’t the same car. So I was quite nervous on the way into the corner and it just caught me out and as I corrected it it kicked me back the other way.
“Thankfully kept it out of the grass but Colin caught the whole gap back back up.
“Once the safety car came out I knew the BMWs can’t warm the fronts up quite as well and it just gave me a chance to get away.
“To be honest once I’d figured out my issues and how to drive around the problem, I think we had it covered off then.”
The second round of the 2020 British Touring Car Championship season is scheduled to get underway at 13:30 BST.