Dan Cammish endures ‘really tough’ Donington Park weekend

NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish endured a ‘really tough’ return to the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park, as a qualifying blaze left him on the back foot for the rest of the weekend.

Cammish had been in the top ten in both practice sessions on Saturday – including second quickest in the morning.

However, early on in qualifying he suffered from a split fuel line on his Ford Focus, which caused a huge fire which significantly damaged the front end of his car.

Cammish’s Motorbase mechanics had to work through the night to fix his car, and he then had to start race one with an untested car.

The 33-year-old put in a determined drive to make up 12 places and claim 16^th at the finish, and had been confident of further progress in race two.

Indeed, Cammish had been running as high as 11^th and was running in 12^th when he suffered from a delaminated tyre which dropped him to 21^st at the end of the race.

Once again starting from a lowly grid slot for race three, Cammish made up eight places to finish in 13^th for his first points of the weekend.

The eight-time BTCC race winner admitted it had been a frustrating weekend, not only with the fire but also race pace which was not as strong as he or team-mate Ash Sutton had hoped.

“It’s been really, really tough,” admitted Cammish to TouringCars.Net. “Just getting out there was a heroic effort from Motorbase – the guys really pulled together.

“From half three yesterday afternoon being on fire to half past three in the morning when the guys worked, then they came back and finished it at seven, right up until the lights went out for race one they were up against it. It was an amazing job.

“In race one I came forward, but everything was new. The front sub-frame, engine, clutches, all the wiring around it, brakes, suspension parts were all untested. So, we were cautious.

“Getting to where we got was a sensible run but it was never going to set the world alight.

“We tried to be a bit more aggressive in race two in terms of engine performance and getting back up to where Ash’s car was in terms of its performance and it was going pretty well up to about 12^th.

“We were bordering on the reverse grid positions when I suffered a delamination of the front-left – the tyre gave up and the tread came away from the tyre.

“It didn’t puncture, but the tread came away and it dropped me to last. That’s where I started the last one and drove to 13^th.

“In this championship you’ve got to start at the front to finish at the front and it’s been a really tough day for that.

“In terms of places gained I’ve not done a bad job. I’ve driven the best with what I’ve had. We’ve struggled a lot there’s no doubt, so we’ve got to go away and put heads together.”

Cammish felt that it would have been possible to make more progress in a recovery drive from the back of the grid under the previous success ballast situation, which is no longer used as the championship now employs a scaled Hybrid Energy Management system instead.

“I think the ballast certainly in my opinion changed things much more than this [hybrid] button does. If you’ve got a good car you’re only giving up a couple of tenths when you’re not using the button.

“The weight [ballast] could really make a big difference. You take the weight out of our car and watch it go. That’s ultimately the problem; all the cars are heavy and are dragging around that weight.

“I don’t know what the race has been like at the front – I’ve seen it in the middle. Touring car racing is always exciting, that was never going to be the issue, but has it mixed it up like it used to? I don’t know.”

Looking ahead to the next round at Brands Hatch in three weeks’ time, Cammish admits that he and the team need to work to improve their race pace situation.

“Our single lap pace when the tyre is fresh is great. Our race pace is dire, I would say. That’s my overall assessment. I think we’ve got a lot of work to do to make this tyre and car do more than six or seven laps at the moment.

“We’ve got a lot of homework and head scratching to do. We have to make some fundamental changes because both me and Ash have suffered from the same thing all day.

“Ash has been at the front and he’s done a great job with what he’s had and managed it, but ultimately I think he’ll tell you that he’s slowly come back at times; he hasn’t been able to keep the pace that he wants to. He did a great job in the final race after making many, many changes.

“I’ve come forward every race, but still there’s more to be done there.”