BTCC Knockhill
There wasn’t much that Ash Sutton did wrong at Knockhill. The Subaru man drove from eighth on the grid to claim a sensational win in race one and then performed a repeat in race two. His momentum towards the top of the title chase seemed inevitable.
And then there was a pesky roller, which officials use to measure the ride height of the cars. Sutton’s Levorg failed the check after race two, despite repeated attempts.
It was bitter sweet, as second-overthe-line Tomingram (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis) was similarly penalised, which handed the glory to Andrew Jordan in his WSRBMW125IMSPORT.
If that was a boost for points table-topper Colin Turkington (WSRBMW125IMSPORT), his second place behind Tomchilton’s Motorbase Ford Focus in race three meant he was leaving with a large grin – and a 43-point buffer in the standings.
Race one
From pole position – his first in the category – Dan Cammish (Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R) knew he would have a fight on his hands to reach the top of Duffus Dip in the lead. He had three rearwheel-drive machines behind him and, despite a rule tweak at the start of 2014 to mandate first gear ratios for rear-motivated cars, they are still strong away from the line.
Cammish was desperate to beat fellow front-row starter Stephen Jelley (Team Parker Racing Bmw125imsport), Jordan and Turkington as the lights flicked off. And he did. His start was strong and he was able to turn in to the right-hander unopposed. Jelley was second, while Turkington performed a great outside pass on Jordan.
Cammish powered clear as Turkington set about unseating Jelley, which he managed when his foe slid slightly wide coming out of the hairpin as they charged to start lap four.
Sutton was up to fifth on lap three when Chris Smiley (BTC Norlin Honda Civic Type R) ran wide at Clark’s and he soon had Jordan in his sights. On lap six, Sutton went around the outside at the hairpin to grab fourth, and then performed a superb slingshot move to unseat Jelley from third at Mcintyres two laps later.
A copycat move on Turkington on lap 11 brought the Subaru into second, and Cammish’s glory in the lead was short-lived.
He was the only one of the frontwheel-drive brigade to realistically have a shot of a podium. “I felt I brought a knife to a gunfight in that race,” said Cammish. “I knew my days were numbered when I saw Ash in my mirrors, but I am pleased with third place.”
It became third because Turkington and Jelley had both wriggled past him by lap 17. However, the battle between the two Beeemms overcooked a lap later. Turkington, uncharacteristically, nerfed into the back of his foe and sent Jelley into the gravel.
He held on to second, but there were some serious conversations with the clerk of the course later and he was handed a formal reprimand and was given two penalty points on his race licence.
“To go from P4 on the grid to P2 is great progress, and I didn’t expect a podium with 75kg of success ballast on board,” said the Northern Irishman, who maintained his points lead in the title chase. “We have really made the most out of the car.
“I feel sorry for Stephen, and we had been having a great scrap. He made a small slip coming out of the chicane and we both went to the inside of the track going into Clark’s. He hit the brakes and I had nowhere to go and we touched. I will go and apologise to him straight away – there was certainly no malice in it.”
Jelley, for his part, was just frustrated. “We had shown what we were able to do, and it was simply annoying. I know Colin didn’t do it on purpose and he has said sorry, but that doesn’t get our points back.”
For Sutton, it was all about controlling the pace and he even survived a late safety car, to clear up Jelley’s car, to maintain a grip on the event.
“That was a great race,” said Sutton. “We need results like that. The conditions were hard, particularly on the new Tarmac which they have laid here and we were all on a journey to find out where the grip was. The car was just superb though and I could almost put it where I wanted to.”
Behind Cammish, Jordan had a lonely race to fourth in a car which didn’t give him as much confidence as he would have liked, and he finished just ahead of the flying Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra of Josh Cook. Cook had started in 10th place after losing his fastest lap from qualifying for exceeding track limits.
Undeterred, he battled through the lower order of the frontrunners to execute a superb pass on Ingram with four laps remaining.
Ingram was happy enough to have banked points for his title chase, and he headed home Tom Oliphant’s Ciceley Motorsport Mercedes-benz A-class, which marked the driver’s best result in the BTCC to that point.
Smiley had been in the top six in the opening stages before a slip at Clark’s dropped him back to an eventual eighth. He headed home Adam Morgan’s Ciceley MercedesBenz A-class and hometown hero Rory Butcher, who had made up 13 places over his starting spot in his Amdtuning.com MG6.
One of the big losers of the race had been Matt Neal in his factory Honda Civic Type R. He qualified in a lowly 21st on a track that was a tough one for his car, fitted with its 39kg of ballast. It rides the kerbs well, but there aren’t any long corners for the superb chassis to gobble up in Fife.
Neal was mired in the midfield when he was collected heavily by Matt Simpson in his Simpson Racing Honda Civic Type R – a move which earned Simpson two points on his race licence.
The damage, for Neal and his title hopes, though, had been quite literally done.
Race two
Sutton and Ingram were muted as they climbed the podium for the second race of the weekend.
Both should have had reason to celebrate after a difficult 20-lap shortened race. Rain had made things treacherous, and both had driven excellently. However, the pair failed a post-race ride height check on their cars and that broke their hearts.
Sutton led from the start on the soaking surface in a race that was immediately neutralised when Ollie Jackson (Amdtuning.com Audi S3) collided with the tyre barrier at the chicane.
The race restarted on lap seven and Sutton powered away from Turkington. However, soon after, Turkington slewed wide at Duffus Dip and dropped back to third behind his team-mate Jordan.
The big mover was Ingram. He had started in sixth but slipped ahead of both Cook and Cammish’s Honda by the end of 10 laps.
On lap 11, Ingram moved into third with a pass on Turkington at the hairpin, which forced the Bmwwide and pushed him down the leaderboard. That was just before the safety car was called again as cars littered the gravel trap as Oliphant and series newcomer Carl Boardley (Team HARDVWCC) had both had excursions.
After six more caution laps, the race was restarted. Ingram powered inside Jordan at Duffus Dip to take second spot but Sutton was already two seconds in front. Red flags flew when Sam Smelt (Amdtuning.com Audi S3) locked up and went straight on at the top of Duffus Dip on lap 21.
After a long period of checking and double checking, the top two were found to be running outside the regulations. There was an extraordinarily long wait for the results of the checks to be known, and everyone was on tenterhooks.
Jordan thus inherited top spot, with Cook second in the Astra. Cammish held on for third place in front of Turkington.
Sutton was extremely disappointed as the bombshell hit. “The car was fine on the lefthand side, and at the front and the back. However, it failed on the right-hand side. I had slipped off the track earlier on at Duffus Dip when I was pushing and maybe that has caused a bit of damage. I can’t change it now, so we have to look forward.”
Ingram was pragmatic afterwards: “The rules are black and white – they are written in a book! There was contact in the queue for the hairpin on the opening lap and that might have caused some damage. I am not sure that would have represented a performance advantage, but we will have to take it on the chin.”
Winner Jordan agreed with the decision to halt the race. He said: “The car was aquaplaning on the straights and they were some very tough conditions. I am not sure we could have carried on for much longer. But these conditions aren’t going to change, so we will have to prepare as well as we can for race three.”
The number six was pulled out of the hat for the reversed grid draw, which meant Chilton would start the day’s third race from pole position.
He would be at the front, while Sutton and Ingram would start from the very back. Turkington, on the other hand, would start fourth with a much lighter car.
The trajectory of the title fight was shifting hugely.
Race three
Chilton was so hungry for success on his return to the BTCC. He had been away from the category for five seasons before returning with Power Maxed Racing in 2017, but he has found a real home this year at Motorbase.
Chilton made a superb start to head into Duffus Dip first ahead of his fellow front-row starter Morgan, with Turkington and Cammish following closely behind.
Following a brief early-race safety car to clear up debris on the circuit after contact between Simpson and Mike Bushell’s Team Hard Volkswagen CC, Chilton controlled the restart and was able to scamper clear Turkington set about unseating Morgan from second.
Turkington managed 15 of the 27 by out-dragging rival away from the hairpin, he set about carving into 2.7-second advantage.
He narrowed it to a few a second, but Chilton held the victory.
“It was a brilliant race,” Chilton, whose last BTCC had been in 2011. “I could there was no more rain so I was protecting my tyres on so I would have something at the end.
“My engineer came on to tell me Colin was catching, told him ‘I do have eyes, I could see him coming, enough in hand because I had done earlier in the
Turkington said that pleased to bank the points than push his rival too far especially given the fate main title rivals. Turkington before the race he was only to concentrate on his own but it was obvious that he also concentrating on the bigger picture.
“I could have tried for but the risk in overtaking have been too much,” said Northern Irishman.
“I was not going to do something to lose the points I had. I was faster coming out of the hairpin and he was faster in the other places, so it was always going to be tough.”
The final spot on the podium was taken by Jordan, who overhauled the tyre-hampered Morgan with seven laps to go.
“I think I had used my rear tyres too much trying to get ahead of Morgan, and I was unable to make any progress after that, but I am happy with my weekend in terms of points,” he said.
Morgan held on to fourth ahead of Sam Tordoff (Motorbase Performance Ford Focus) and Cook.
One of the performances of the race came from Butcher, who battled his way up the pack and picked them off one by one to land an eventual seventh.
The first two across the line in race two, Sutton and Ingram, were forced to start from the back row after failing a ride height check and, to make matters worse, they were still forced to carry the full 75kg and 66kg of ballast.
Sutton blasted through the field to eighth at the flag, while Ingram finished just outside the points in 16th.
The top 10 was rounded out by a handling afflicted Jack Goff (Eurotech Honda Civic Type R) and BTC Norlin Honda man Dan Lloyd.