Dan Cammish led from lights to flag to secure the win in race one at Oulton Park. Often the understudy to team mate Ash Sutton, Cammish took the win holding off Josh Cook and title protagonist Tom Ingram.

A first lap scuffle between Josh Cook and championship leader Sutton saw the Ford man slip down the order but recovered for seventh. Ingram finished third to eat into Sutton’s title lead.

Cammish led off the line with Sutton making an excellent start in his Focus. He passed Cook for second at turn one but on the run down into Cascades, Cook squeezed down the inside of Sutton clipped the left rear of Sutton, sending him into a half-spin. He fell to ninth but was back up to sixth by the end of lap one having dispatched the PMR Audi trio.

The Safety Car made a brief appearance on lap three as Lewis Selby was squeezed wide down the back straight trying to pass Dexter Patterson in his PMR Audi, sending debris all over the circuit.

On the restart on lap five, Cammish maintained his lead with Cook and Ingram in tow behind him. The gap between the three ebbed and flowed throughout the race. Sutton, still reeling from his lap one clash, was trying to fight his way back through the field. At the Hislop chicane he tried to pass Adam Morgan but the Plato Racing driver held the inside line putting Sutton across the grass.

Morgan would however retire from the race on lap nine as an engine sensor issue saw his Mercedes lose power. This gifted Sutton a place as he sat seventh, under intense pressure from the Hyundai’s of Chris Smiley and Tom Chilton.

Cammish held on, with the top three pulling away from Aron Taylor-Smith in fourth. Cook had glances at the lead but Cammish held firm. Ingram, focused on taking points, held on to third. The top three would start race two on the slower hard tyre. With this in mind, Taylor-Smith held back for fourth putting him in the best spot for race two.

Power Maxed duo Aiden Moffat and Mike Doyle were fifth and sixth, the latter showing some excellent defensive driving to hold off Sutton, who could only manage seventh. Chilton and Smiley followed with Daryl De Leon finishing tenth.

The points were rounded off by Dexter Patterson, Gordon Shedden, Sam Osborne, Ricky Collard and Charles Rainford.

Sutton would be in a good position for race two, with more boost allocated and cars ahead on the hard tyre, he will be looking to fight in race two.

image credit: Naveen Kumar