Photo credits to; Lee Fisher Motorsport Photography
Croft brought an action packed weekend with aggressive racing up and down the field resulting in most likely one of the best rounds of the year!
Race One;
Race one saw the field split with dry runners – mostly on the hard tyre – and wet runners. At the end of the formation lap the majority of the dry runners pulled in to change onto the wets, leaving a rather empty looking grid for the race start. The first lap saw Cook retain pole position with the NAPAs of Cammish and Sutton set chase – with Tom Ingram right behind! While De Leon had a scare running wide out of the chicane, losing places but keeping the car under control.
The mid-pack saw a lot of proper touring car action with door to door action all the way around the lap. Patterson was the biggest loser from this after making contact with his teammate Moffat, sending him sliding through the grass at the complex and lucky being avoided when he came back onto the track out of control.
Championship rivals Sutton and Ingram were having a mega battle for 3rd, at one point heading side by side through the Jim Clark Esses! Meanwhile Lewis Selby saw himself off into the field at Tower Bend in a very awkward incident for the NAPA driver. Lap 9 saw the first track limits penalty as Aron Taylor Smith got 5 seconds for repeated track limits, with Morgan picking one up the very next lap. This comes as the track limit ruling has been changed this weekend, being far more strict on the drivers.
On lap 12 more penalties came over for Ingram and Dan Lloyd, at the same time Sutton went way of the road at Sunny and lost the podium to Ingram! On lap 13 Cammish found himself with a penalty as well, while Ingram took 2nd off of Cammish with the fast charging Sutton approaching into the 5 second gap. On the exit of the hairpin heading onto Lap 14 Ingram took the lead off of Josh Cook, who’d been leading the race brilliantly, however Cook doesn’t have a penalty – effectively leading the race none the less! Sutton got past Cammish on the track on the final lap of the race and as Ingram took the win on the track Sutton sent a move on Cook on the final corner of the race however hitting the back off Cook and not getting through!
In the end, Josh Cook would win while Ash Sutton took 2nd with Tom Ingram 3rd – winning on the track but the time penalty dropping him from the race win. Daryl De Leon took the Independents win while Lewis Gilbert took a best finish of his BTCC career so far with 11th!
Race Two;
Race Two saw a change in conditions as the track dried up enough for dries to be the go to across the grid. As the race began, many cars took the run off at Hawthorn Bend while down the road at Tower Bend Ash Sutton sent it round the outside of Cook and pulled the move off to take the race lead with a world class move! After only 3 laps Sutton pulled out the lead to 2.8 seconds! While Ingram found his way past Cook at Tower Bend, securing the move before the apex!
Later on in the lap down at the complex, Cook was being swarmed by De Leon, Rowbottom and Ricky Collard – in his final round as a BTCC driver – when he went deep and smashed De Leon off the road and spinning, luckily avoiding the barrier and re-joining the race. Dropping him to 14th and Cook to 5th. Sutton had pulled out a 5 second gap by the end of lap 6 as Ingram was left under major pressure by Rowbottom and eventually overtaken round the outside of the Jim Clark Esses.
Ingram would let Collard through at the hairpin leaving him in 4th, until Cammish made a move at Sunny In making contact with the side of Ingram and sending him sliding through the wet grass and into the barrier! While on lap 10, Ingram, Rowbottom and Collard all got 5 seconds for track limits, which would affect everybody’s races massively apart from Ingram’s, who would pull in and retire after his crash with Cammish.
Moffatt, Taylor-Smith and Selby all picking up 5 seconds for track limits in the coming laps as well. Cook was half-spun on lap 13 by Daniel Lloyd who was on the softer compound compared to Cook’s hard. The contact sent Cook int a half spin and wide of the corner, however just staying on the road. Cook would have to retire due to a broken rear right tyre.
Sutton would make history and win his 55th BTCC race, making him the winningest driver on the current BTCC grid and top 5 on the all time BTCC wins list. Rowbottom took 2nd even with his 5 second penalty while Ricky Collard grabbed the 3rd place trophy. Charles Rainford would have an impressive drive in his BMW to take the independents win, with Shedden 8 seconds back from the Independents winner!
Race Three;
Clervaux saw plenty of drama off the race start, with a locked out PMR front row of Moffatt and Doble running side-by-side behind there was several cars off and crashing through Clervaux and Hawthorn. The replays showed Cammish clattering the inside curb and smashing into the side of Collard, sending himself wide and Collard sideways into the gravel – with Lewis Gilbert running into the gravel as a reaction to the incident in front of him. Collard who kept his foot pinned came back on and hit the side of Sutton who’s door to door with Rowbottom causing them to both spin to the outside of the corner. Taylor-Smith and Lewis Selby made contact during the drama with Taylor-Smith bouncing across the grass to avoid the incident and flying into the side of Selby as he re-joined – Selby made an wonderful save and kept running while Taylor-Smith was out of the race alongside Ricky Collard – who after being taken out of his final BTCC race spent his time helping the marshals retrieve a bollard and waving to the fans taking in his final moments as a BTCC driver. Sutton, Cammish and Selby all had to pit for repairs dropping a lap behind the leaders
Doble held the lead off the restart from his Scottish counter-part Moffatt. On lap 8, Moffatt was hit at Sunny In Chilton, introducing the pack into the battle causing pure chaos around the Scotsman’s as he tried to hold on to any and all positions. Ingram was side-by-side with Rainford when he found himself bouncing off at the Jim Clark Esses – taking him out of the race. At the complex on the same lap Rowbottom found himself off wide in the grass in a much less dramatic fashion, however still losing places.
On lap 12, Osbourne made contact with Rainford at Tower, sending him spinning off the road, he was able to re-join and continue, however with damage.
Mikey Doble would take the victory taking his second victory of the season and third of his career. Rounding off another world class weekend of British Touring Car Racing