Dan Cammish inherited the Race to Pole victory at Oulton Park due to polesitter Aron Taylor-Smith being penalised mid-race.

The NAPA Ford driver started the race second behind Taylor-Smith, who secured pole in qualifying. Cammish kept the Irishman honest up front, and following a Safety Car period, Taylor-Smith weaved on the lead up to the restart, which is not allowed. He was handed a five second penalty and fell to fifth at the chequered flag.

Cammish, often the understudy to team mate Ash Sutton, gratefully inherited the win, with Sutton banking key points to extend his championship lead.

At the start Josh Cook made an excellent leap off the grid to be third, passing Mikey Doble to be third. Tom Chilton was in the wars, spinning off on the run to the island hairpin, he recovered to finish 12th.

Gordon Shedden and Dan Rowbottom collided at the Hislop chicane, effectively retiring Shedden and Rowbottom languished around the back of the pack.

Lap two saw the Safety Car come out as Nicholas Hamilton crashed on the way down to the Island hairpin, ending his race in the wall.

After a three lap intermission, battle resumed, once the Safety Car’s lights went out and peeled away, Taylor-Smith up front started weaving, which is often used as a method of distraction to make sure the driver behind can’t tell when you’re going to apply the throttle and restart the race. The stewards handed the Toyota driver a five second penalty, the second time in four Race to Poles that the leader wouldn’t win the race following Tom Ingram’s penalty at Donington Park.

On the restart Sutton squeezed round outside of Doble for fourth, with title rival Ingram soon following suit.

Lap eight saw a small flashpoint between Sutton and Ingram. Heading into the final corner, Ingram pushed into the back of Sutton and sent him wide. Thankfully the championship leader kept it on track and Ingram, perhaps fearing a hefty penalty, allowed Sutton back through.

There was a heart-in-mouth moment for Sam Osborne in the third Ford Focus Saloon as he got onto the grass at Cascades, bouncing and drifting across the grass and thankfully avoiding any other drivers.

Taylor-Smith was doing all he could to bridge the gap knowing he had five seconds to find. He couldn’t as Cammish inherited the win, with Josh Cook second, Sutton third and Ingram fourth with Taylor-Smith demoted to fifth.

PMR’s Mikey Doble and Dexter Patterson sandwiched Plato Racing’s Adam Morgan for sixth and eighth with Aiden Moffat in the third PMR Audi ninth and Chris Smiley rounding out the top ten in his Hyundai.

* Aron Taylor-Smith handed five second penalty, finished first but demoted to fifth.

image credit: Naveen Kumar

Related posts:

BTCC Round One – Doble inherits race win with Ingram disqualification BTCC Round Two – Sutton surges to win with Ingram retirement BTCC Round Three – Sutton doubles up to end weekend strong BTCC – Sutton wins chaotic Race To Pole